The Second Magi War
by WhateverMan
Summary: The Second War of the Magi began with an assault on Narsche and sparks a world war. Only Emperor Gestahl himself knows to what madness he will go to achieve his goals of conquering the free world of Gaia. Chapter 4 - Guardians of the Past and Promises Present.
1. Disclaimer and Preface

I do not personally own this story. The original story belongs to Hironobu Sakaguchi and is his property and his alone. The rights to Final Fantasy VI belong to Squaresoft and Nintendo. I make no profit or any monetary off of any part of this writing. If either Mr. Sakaguchi or Squaresoft themselves ask me I will henceforth and permanently remove this without further notice. I by no means wish to plagiarize their works.

The bulk of this work is an expansion on the world which they and all those involved in the creation of Final Fantasy VI introduced to us. As such many of the main characters, places, and situations are theirs, yet the majority of the thoughts and words here expressed are my own portrayal of how they should be written.

I ask for all those who would desire to read this writing to do so with an open mind. There is some great difficulty in putting to paper a story that has only previously been officially published as an interactive video game. I will attempt to do my best to both honor and respect them and their efforts to bring us a superior, masterful and moving tale about a world wherein the impossible is anything but, where the characters are true to life and the examples of how easy it is to let power consume, friendship both grow and wane, to let war be someone else's problem or issue, and how caring effort can stave off anything from disheartening to even global war.

I look forward to hearing from many of you who have in your many years also come to love and cherish fondly the memories you have of the characters and world of Final Fantasy VI. Should anyone have any question or concerns about either the portrayal of this story, my accuracy to canon, or even my own ability as a writer (not an author for this story is not my own piece of original work) please feel free to let me know. I look forward to many long months and maybe even years of putting to paper the story that I and so many others care so deeply about.

Sincerely,

m0h

P.S. Feel free to contact me via Private Message or through reviews. Now that the disclaimer is quite over please continue with the story and do not let this pre-chapter deter you from the work itself.

Word Count: 409

Uploaded: 2008/10/02 Thursday


	2. Table of Contents

**Table of Contents**

Fanfiction Chapter ### - Content/Name – Perspective – Date Internal – Location – Uploaded – Words

001 – Disclaimer and Preface – Uploaded 2008/10/02 – 428 Words

002 – Table of Contents – Uploaded 2009/05/25 – 145 Words

003 – Book 1 The Return of Magic – Year 1001 A.W. – Uploaded 2008/10/02 – 340 Words

004 – Prologue Reminiscence – Arvis Trinbel – 1001/03/20 AW – Narsche Residence – 2008/10/03 – 1,602 Words

005 – Chapter 1 For The Empire – Biggs Duelitre – 1001/03/21 AW – Narsche Canyon – 2008/10/02 – 2,734 Words

006 – Chapter 2 What Must Be Done – Wedge Antliones – 1001/03/21 AW – Narsche City & Mines – 2008/10/03 – 6,573 Words

007 – Chapter 3 Dreams and Realities – Terra Branford – 1001/03/21-26 AW – Narsche Residence & Mines – 2008/11/14 – 7,616 Words

008 – Chapter 4 Guardians of the Past and Promises Present – Locke Cole – 1001/03/26 AW – Narsche Canyon, City, Residence & Mines – 2009/07/18 – 12,170 Words

**Future Updates**

009 – Chapter 5 Leaving Narsche Behind – Terra Branford – 1001/03/26-04/03 AW – Narsche Canyon, Celia Village – 2009/08/15 (Tentative Deadline) – 6k Words Plus


	3. Book 1 The Return of Magic

**Disk 1 – The Return of Magic**

When the last vestiges of the flames and ravishes of the First War of the Magi at last receded from the remains of a once peaceful land, only the charred husk of a world remained. Many things were lost, not the least of which was the awesome and mighty power of magic. In the thousand years that followed, iron, gunpowder, and steam engines took the place of magic, and life ever so slowly returned to the once barren land. Cities grew where towns and small villages stood and soon cities became nations. Nations begat wars and etched out their own empires upon the land in an attempt to rule over others, yet through it all the power of magic yet remained lost, unknown, and untouched. But inside of a millenia from that dreadful and fated war, there were some that stood in power who desired to reawaken the magic of ages past, and use its dread power as a means by which to conquer all the world.

-Ted Woosly the Archiver of New Vector in _From One War of the Magi to the Next_.

The Gestahlian Empire had by that point reached far and wide in both its reach and power. Fear of the Emperor's great strength and military might led most to join the growing Empire as territories or through the use of treaties. Although many did join in the years and few decades before the Second War of the Magi, some nations openly opposed this central rule as a form of forced military dictatorship. Of those who did, few there were who actively sought the abolishment of the expansive Empire. Groups were formed and subsequently destroyed by the armies of Gestahl the Fearless as he expanded his already widespread Empire. He continually sought for a way to conquer the remaining lands not under his control and to also destroy all those who dared to oppose his power.

-Kain the Dragonlance in _Prelude to the Magitek War_.

Word Count: 340

Uploaded: 2008/10/02 Thursday


	4. Prologue Reminiscence

**Prologue – Reminiscence**

The wind blew loudly across the roof of the quiet home that was nestled into the mountainside behind it. What snow had made its resting place atop the house was promptly removed to be sent to another distant location while the house stood still amidst the strong gusts. It had been there for going on a quarter century and there was little that the wind could do to change that.

Arvis Trinbel sat in a comfortable if stiff chair in the guest room of his house that doubled as his personal library, reading a weathered book that had captured his full attention just like others had previously. Some would call him a bookworm, he preferred to think of himself as educated. But in his mind it was naught but semantic nonsense as at the heart of the matter he really did spend more time reading than socializing and the neighbors would always think him odd for it.

His glasses rested at the end of his slightly large nose and occasionally slipped down it to the annoyance of Arvis. With age comes many things, wisdom, intelligence, understanding, but he never could grasp that elusive characteristic of not becoming annoyed easily. Eventually becoming too frustrated to read effectively, he pulled his glasses off and set them on the reading stand to his side as he pinched the bridge of his nose with the first two fingers of his right hand. He couldn't seem to concentrate today anyways it seemed. Too much was going on in his mind for that.

He laid back into the chair and let his graying hair frame his face as he thought on the only thing that he had been able to concentrate on lately, Emperor Gestahl's increasingly more aggressive tactics in his ongoing war to conquer. He had a great amount of respect for the Gestahl of old, where he had built up a people and a land riddled with war and hatred and had united them with a common cause. He had conquered the most warring land in the world and had founded the greatest city mankind had seen since the near destruction of all people nearly a thousand years ago. He had began an Empire that now spanned a whole continent and he was pressing hard to encompass another. He deserved the praise that his rule had brought, but unfortunately as power was wont to do, it had made him greedy.

Reading the old texts as often as he had, Arvis was well versed in how wars started. Two squabbling groups wanted the same land or the same resources and started a fight that led to battles, which led to war, which led to leaders ordering men to their death. He could never understand how any sane man could order another to their death, for land or country or even that elusive trait _loyalty_, it all wound down to the same thing; men of power and leadership sent them to their death. Be it called "expansion of the kingdom" or something as simple as land reclamation, greed led those in power to covet what others had and strove for it at the cost of their subjects lives. Life was precious and should be treasured for as long as it is to be had. He knew that personally.

He could still picture her face, see her smile. His dear Shelyse was such a beautiful young woman. Life could be cruel. Just when he had been given the truly blessed gift of finding the love of his life, fate deigns to torture her with sickness. They had been married for less than five years when she became sick. It was an unforgiving ailment. She just seemed to wither away. Her muscles failed to support her and she became increasingly more fatigued from even the most simple of tasks. The pain came at random times, but when it did it came with a vengeance unseen in any race save man. Eventually she had become bedridden and he was forced to watch as she made her slow slip into death. It wasn't fair; they had loved each other so strongly. She shouldn't have been taken, she should still be here. But no amount of anguished cries or cursings at the heavens would or could bring her back. He knew that and it only added to his sorrow when she passed.

His life became lonely then; any attempts by others to marry him off again were spurned with a passion. He resigned himself to a widower's life. He thought of her daily and wished yet again that life could be different. But it wasn't, and he had to live with the hand that fate had dealt, cruel though it was. So he had honored her the only way that he knew how. Her faith in mankind and in peace was unflappable in life and he would be so in her death. He would oppose war and greed and manipulation with his all and never leave the world to its own devices. History had shown that war was often repeated by foolish men with dreams far larger than themselves, so he had studied and learned all he could to help avoid and eliminate that which led to war. When it had come to the war of the southern continent, he was too far to make a difference, yet still spoke vocally against it in his own city of Narsche. When Vector had become the military capital that it was, he opposed the increase in weaponry and aggression with words. But when the then-crowned Emperor had conjured up an army to conquer the land, Arvis could not sit by and let it come.

He had found a friend and ally in Banon Regent. He also spoke out against war, but had gone farther than that. He had begun a resistance group that opposed the Empire and all that is stood for. He had plans to counter steel with steel, and had even attempted to convince Arvis to join as well. But he couldn't do that. His Shelyse had hated fighting and he would never be able to forgive himself if he fought to end fighting, knowing that fighting only begat more. So he had watched as the Empire had expanded, and those following Banon had countered. It had been a very one-sided series of battles. The Emperor had far more men at his disposable and was far more willing to send them to death with nary a second thought. So it went on, and he had stayed out of it; until he had learned something truly terrible.

Emperor Gestahl was studying that which nearly destroyed the world in the past, that cursed yet blessed power, magic. Arvis knew the destruction it had racked upon the world during that long ago War of the Magi. It had nearly torn the world apart. Entire nations had ceased to exist through that war, seas swallowed others so completely not a single survivor was found, and the Gods themselves had been locked in a deadly struggle such as had never been seen before or would ever be seen again. Magic was more than dangerous, it destroyed all those it touched. Even when the Gods retired from the War and left mankind to its own fate, the world had been truly ravished and was left with scars that took centuries to heal, both in the land and in people's minds. Of all the foolishness that Gestahl could do, searching for that destructive force was beyond mad to Arvis' mind.

So it was with a heavy heart and great sadness, he made the decision to go beyond words of opposition. He joined those that strove for peace through action and he cursed himself for doing so and forsaking the pacifist view his wife had held so dear. He still refused to actively fight but lent aid to the rebels through resources and information, and received like in kind. But the fighting dragged on, and now it was more dangerous than ever to oppose those in power. Even worse because of what had been so recently discovered.

Information is a precious commodity and should be more closely guarded than most anything else. Yet still he doubted that the fact that an Esper had been discovered deep in the mines of the mountain range would be kept a secret for long. It was not a matter of if it would be discovered, but rather when. And when it was, the Empire would spare nothing to get their greedy hands on it. So he watched and waited, sharing information with his contact in the rebel forces, and hoped that when the Esper was discovered that the bloodshed would be small for the Empire to capture it.

**Writers Notes**

I was informed that a few small quotes do not a Prologue make, and decided that there was no better way to begin a story then to give an actual and important beginning to start off. To that end, I decided to make Arvis the prime character in this part. He has a very integral role in the story itself and I think that his character was left undeveloped and under-portrayed greatly. I wanted to get in his head and see what he thought before the assault on Narsche ever took place as well as how and why he ever joined up with the Returners in the first place. This is the result of letting the mind wander.

Word Count: 1,593

Uploaded: 2008/10/06


	5. Chapter I For the Empire

Cold. That was the only word that could possibly describe how he was feeling at that moment. The snow was pretty, even if when melted by body heat seemed to seep into the cracks between the armor he had on and his skin. The nighttime sky was even more so although the clouds covered more than their fair share of the nightscape above. Even the weather was slightly warmer than it normally would have been considering summer was still strong in its efforts to fight off the inevitable return of autumn. But the one thing that made him feel as if the whole word was freezing as if to halt its own spin was that damnably freezing wind. Oh, it wasn't that strong or even necessarily that annoying but if it didn't just creep down your shirt and onto your skin just to caress it enough to send shivers down the spine and bumps on the flesh.

The man watched from the perch he had on top of the beast of metal beneath him out onto the frozen landscape and pondered - yet again - why in the name of Minerva herself anyone would want to live in the icy plains that lay in from of him. The land was dead to his eye with almost nothing remarkable or even of recognition besides the occasional rock peeking through the snow beneath or the tree that of course had no leaves to call its own. He had seen a wild Lobo earlier that morning when they left camp at daybreak. It had looked so gaunt and lean he doubted that it had eaten anything for days. The weather was so cold and dreary even the animal life seemed to be just staving off extinction itself.

The shuffling gait of the two-legged creature he sat on would have caused him to fall from where he sat had he not shifted his weight consciously to remain seated. He didn't need falling off and being laughed at by his one speaking companion to be added to his growing list of grievances for this particularly horrid mission. He could still hear in his mind's ear the echoing laughter from when after nearly three years in the Imperial Magitek Academy they had finally started Magitek Armour training and he was quite unprepared for the seemingly unnatural way the mechanical creature moved. It had looked much like a very large wingless Chocobo made of metal and wire and had promptly decided that treating it as such was the best way to ride the fell beast. That was a mistake he was still very painfully reminded of more often than would ever be appreciated.

The two legs upon which it carried itself were far too large at what should have been considered the area of the feet and became astonishingly thin further up until the section that was the alleged knee area. Its legs bent backwards like those of a Chocobo yet had no toes or other extremities to speak of at the bottom of the leg. In fact it looked more like a hoof of a horse than it did a foul's foot. Which was odd in its own right as there were only two legs not four beneath the beast, he thought. Even more odd was the fact that it seemed as if the feet were simply sliding along the ground without ever being lifted up enough to not skim the earth beneath. He had overheard one of the so-called Magitek Technicians discussing with another about how the designs were created to use the least amount of energy possible so in order to reduce the required energy the legs only ever lifted high enough to reduce the pressure sufficiently to move the leg forward to be used again. That was partially why its gait was more characterized as a shuffle and slide than actual walking. They thought they were so intelligent. Hah! In doing what they had it only made it far more difficult to ride the accursed things for those actually out doing the real work of expanding the great Empire.

The body portion of the metal beast was very wide and when looked at one could tell was very heavy indeed. The main body was easily three men long and just over a man wide. It made for an impressive sight and would have given the rider a sense of awe and wonder at how far knowledge of things lost was being combined with the knowledge of the new had he not seen it on a daily basis through training and missions. The saddle was set into the beast so he was not so much riding atop as he was riding almost inside of it. Also a very disturbing thought. With no arms to speak of it was a fearsome sight by size and a terrible sight with how abnormal it looked. That was probably another reason they created it like this. Fear was a powerful motivator and when the enemy fears what they see they are all the more cautious and afraid of the power that they wield. Fear leads to control which was the way of the conquerer. He smiled inside. Whenever he thought of serving in the Empire it never failed to bring a feeling of contentment to him.

He looked to his left and saw his companion and friend looking just as cold and miserable in the weather as him. He was taller than he was though not by much. He himself was just less than six feet and almost didn't make the cutoff for the Magitek Elite. Although being shorter than most of his compatriots did have its advantages sometimes. Not a lot of women like too tall men and he gladly got to know quite well said women because of his more appealing height. Biggs Duelitre harbored no great beliefs that he was more attractive than all of the other men, although he knew that he was more attractive than most of them. He just had a more than adequate helping of personality and that also went a long ways with the barmaids back in civilization.

_If I ever get back there,_ he thought with sarcasm as he looked around yet again to see if there was anything to see on his annoying way. Having had enough of silence on this damn trip because of the very apparent lack of wildlife he decided to start a conversation, if for no other reason than to hear the sound of something other than that infernal wind.

"So how much farther do you think it is?" Not even daring to hope that it was any closer than since he had asked that question just over an hour ago. It was hard to tell time in the twilight, what with being in the middle of the canyon where the high reaching walls blocked out more of the sky than they allowed the travelers to see. Even during the daytime it was hard to tell. Being so far north made it so that the sun more often than not barely peeked over the horizon to shine light. With the addition of the middle of winter just having started and the sun rising lower above the bare tree line because of it didn't add to the light at all either.

"How should I know? I've never been to this place before. We were told to come here and get that, that _thing_ before anyone else discovers what it really is," replied Wedge Antliones, the disdain and clean hatred not only being heard but almost felt when he talked of the object of their mission. Wedge had always had a greater sense of hatred for the beasts than he had. His brother still bore the burn scars on his face and shoulder from the last attempted escape incident in the Vector Research Facility. His friend still refused to talk about it to anyone, not even to his brother that it happened to.

Shaking his head of the reverie he looked up to gain at least some semblance of bearing from what little of the starscape as he could. He knew they couldn't really be more than a few hours out at the most. Though slow the metal beast were, the snow did little to impede their progress and were making good time. If only there was actually something to do to alleviate the ever-present boredom caused by hours of endless riding. Sleep was out of the question, not only because if he tried he really would fall off his steel perch, but because he wasn't tired. His sense of normal was all messed up with the weird orders they were given. Camping in small caves out of sight and sleeping during the daylight hours while traveling only at night to evade the eyes of anyone who might be watching their precession was smart, although now he didn't know if he would ever be able to have a normal sleeping schedule again.

He could tell that with the topic being on the target of their mission that Wedge would probably remain in the bad mood that he was in, Biggs turned to look at the only other companion that was travelling with them. _Though she's not really much a companion if you ask me. She never says a word, never shivers even in this damn cold. If I didn't know better I'd believe that she wasn't alive on her Beast either. All she ever does is stare straight ahead with that almost unblinking stare that never really goes away._ The woman was thin; deceptively even more so when she was seen astride the monstrosity that was her mount. Her face was young, too young to be a seasoned warrior like they were. Yet here they were _guarding_ her as if she was the superior and not Wedge. Not even deigning to talk to them as if she was better than them. It was all a deception though.

Looking above her youthful face his eyes glanced at the tiara that wound round her head and kept her unusual light green hair in its place. Biggs recoiled slightly with abject disgust when his eyes beheld that thing. The Slave Crown, as it was so suitably named was just that. It was a tool of slavery. When placed upon the head of anyone their normal thoughts would be drowned out by it and its almost constant though quiet hum. No thoughts, no feelings, no heart. As much as he loved the Empire and wished for its continued growth and eventual world ruling, it disgusted him to think that they had to use such things. In this civilized age of Magitek weaponry and where even the smallest and most remote towns and villages were slowly growing accustomed to technology, where coal and wood burning was being superseded by steam-powered engines they shouldn't have to rely on such demeaning ways to further expand the glorious Empire should they?

_In a perfect world_, he thought. Which was exactly why he was here. Not to attack a town of innocents, but to retrieve an object that would help the peaceful strengthening of the civilized Empire and to bring its blessings and technology to the world. Some things were dangerous if handled incorrectly, so that was why it was so important to take a hold of those things before hapless and careless individuals happened upon them and injured themselves or even worse other innocent people. Yes it required force at times, yes he didn't always enjoy his job or the manner it had to be carried out, but it had to be done. For the good of the people as a whole, for eventual worldwide peace under Emperor Gastra's leadership and guidance he would be willing to do almost anything for hi Emperor.

Glancing at the young woman he was again struck by how absolutely young she was. If he wasn't mistaken he would have sworn she wasn't a day over eighteen. That was the youngest anyone could join the Imperial Army and she was at the same rank as he was. A Magitek Rider; a title that drew fear from those who had never felt it before and drained hope from those who had. It took years to even be entered into the Magitek Rider Academy let alone graduate from it. She really was a bundle of questions to which he had no answers and no hope of ever answering. What truly bothered him were her eyes. They were empty, like all emotion and feeling had never existed in the woman to his side. At times he could have sworn that he saw something flicker across those hazel depths but it was always gone so quickly it left him wondering if he ever really saw it in the first place.

He turned away swiftly with a small blush hoping that Wedge hadn't noticed that he was once again staring at their companion. It was bad enough that he would always claim it was because he was ogling her body or thinking about ordering her to show him more of herself, to which Wedge would always continued by saying that the Slave Crown would make her don anything he wanted. What made it worse was that he would make these comments right in front of her and didn't seem to care. Oh sure, she didn't respond and never so much as glanced his way but it still was nerve-rackingly embarrassing.

Looking out over the snow covered ground he realized that he had been so preoccupied with his own thoughts that they had neared the city quite a bit sooner than he was expecting. It was still too far off to see anything of it other than the coal lanterns that were ever present in a mining town like this one. Turning to his superior with a questioning glance, he didn't even have to say anything for Wedge to know that he had seen it.

Not more than an hour away at the pace they were making, it was only a few more hours until daybreak. Wedge turned to his inferior and stated, "The common entrance to the town is in the South, so we will be attacking from the less expected route, the East. Dawn is not that far off. If we keep our pace, we can curve around and reach the eastern edges a half hour before daybreak. The least prepared guard is always the most efficiently defeated. It will be shortly before the guard change and they will be least expecting us. That is when we will attack. You have yours orders, understood?" His tone was calm and stern with an air of boastfulness that was never appreciated by Biggs. But he was right and as he was the superior his word was law.

"Yes sir." He responded not quite enthusiastically though with just enough effort in his voice that his unhappiness was easily hidden. He was hoping that the sun would rise before they reached the city so they could get some rest. He wasn't looking forward to going into battle unrested after an eight hour march, even if he was only riding a saddle.

"Yes sir." Came the quiet voice of the girl to his side. Biggs looked at her again not quite believing that she had responded before he realized they had been given a direct order and that of course she would respond to it. He contemplated getting her to try and talk again but after having failed over a half dozen times already, he had little hope for it. Plus with the assault pending not more than a few short hours away, it would probably be best if he focused on the more important task of preparing for the extraction of the object. He hoped that the people would just willingly give it up but he knew that they probably wouldn't. The Empire wasn't very well respected out here and even if they ordered the town to give it to them, they would most likely refuse because they really didn't have any jurisdiction out here.

Oh well, he could always hope.


	6. Chapter II What Must Be Done

**Chapter II – What Must Be Done**

The great mining town of Narsche. Many in the recent years had taken to calling it a mining city, but in his mind it was and would always be a mining town. City implied civilization, intelligence, order, the Empire. And out here in this Minerva-forsaken land the Empire had little to enforce its laws upon the land with even less love from the people when it was received if it was at all. Wedge Antliones hated these types of mission, hated going to some backwater dump looting, pillaging, or killing; all for the glory of the Empire. Ha. There was no glory to be found here, only stupid people going all about with their stupid lives. They were nothing to him.

The Empire had giving him a task and he would carry it out. It was as simple as that; no more, no less. The only differences between missions were the when, the where, and who would get in the way of the Empire and would suffer the consequences. He never could understand why anyone would go against the Empire. They had ushered in a better age for Oni's sake! One of steam replacing coal, where wood houses were being torn down and being remade as buildings with iron and steel for their bonework which would never burn nor break, one where happiness was free and for all. Where poverty was slowly but surely being eradicated and peace was not a far-seen unknown hope of the future. The Empire had brought an end to strife all across the southern continent. War was a thing of the past. _Or it should be_, he thought as his mount once again shifted beneath him as it stepped forward and he unconsciously moved with it. If these people only understood what the Empire had to offer them, they would come willingly with gifts and praise for the glory and blessing of the Great Gestahl. They would fall at his feet and thank him for giving them peace and prosperity. They would serve him and the world would have order.

_If only they could understand_. But inside he knew it wasn't a lack of capacity to understand. It was a choice. Anyone hearing of the Emperor's greatness would submit if they let reason rule their actions. They choose to continually not see the vision. They allow their own personal fears and biases to dissuade them from a much brighter future. Away from what could and one day would be a bright and glorious day where all would be at peace and happy. He would fight for that dream. He would die for that dream. His loyalties were firm, his path straight, his mind unclouded by prejudice and foolish sentiment. He was charged with a task and he would do what must be done. _So why does it hurt so much? _ He thought to himself.

He could hear the screams, the cries brought on by both anger and pain, see the flames as they licked at the bodies of those who had willingly fought against a brighter and better tomorrow. The snow that once was so cleanly seen was now tainted with patches of red and littered with the bodies of the dead and dying. There were scattered beasts as well, those whom the people had tamed and trained in the defense of the people. For every ten men there were at least three or four Lobos and one or two of the great Vomammoths of the North; their bodies seeming to add to the picturesque feel of the bodies strewn across the streets between them and their destination. Oh how he hated the smell of burning flesh. He would never become accustomed to it. The acrid smell that brought a twinge to the stomach and caused any normal man to gag and lose his last meal was strong in the air. It was always wherever he went; he seemed to never be rid of that foul smell. _At least it wasn't as strong as when we took Miranda_, he thought with a saddened sigh and regret in his own mind. It was a sad and regretful job but some things had to be done. They would never truly understand that this was all for them, to bring them into a time of worldwide peace, to allow them the opportunity to join the better creed.

The attack had gone off exactly as it should have. Shortly before daybreak the army of three rode out of the darkness from the eastern trees and moved swiftly to the entrance of the town. With quickening strides from their mounts they made their way quickly from the darkness and caught the town guard unprepared just as he knew they would be. He knew their type. They were counting down the minutes before they could turn over the watch to others with equally weak senses of duty who would keep just as careless an eye for danger as they would themselves. The night was cold, getting more so what with winter strong in its grasp of this land and they would be careless in their responsibilities. The unexpected attack meant that they were dead long before they had a chance to fight back or warn others. With the outlying guards down they moved with an even faster pace to the borders of the town itself, where they started to truly meet resistance in the form of foolish people who actually began to understand they were under attack yet still fell one after the other to the assault.

They were like chocobos lead to the slaughterhouse without any hope of fighting back. They ran about in such confusion it would have been laughable if one found it funny to mock them moments before their death. But Wedge wasn't like that. He hated the killing, the mindless hours of travel and wait for a few precious moments of confusion that were thrust on an unsuspecting enemy who would grasp death long before they would their wits. Confusion brought on even more so by the torrent of liquid fire that burst from the gaping maw of his mount as he walked solidly yet swiftly through the eastern road in the town.

They had torched the city. Not randomly as he was sure they would be accused of doing later, but with planned accuracy as he swung the mouth of the beast to torch another building of business as his mount shuffled past in its unnatural gait. Businesses were always hit first, they were the easiest to rebuild after the battle would be done, with taverns and other places of ill repute following when he saw them. Homes were always spared. He would never knowingly burn a home, not even of someone who professed to be an enemy of the Empire. People had little and he fought for the people but not for their misguided beliefs. Homes would become cages of flame and death to any children trapped inside and he would **not** kill an innocent. There were so few of those still in this world that he knew that he had to spare them if he could.

With competent accuracy he caused the beast of metal and death to rear up higher and shoot a blast of fire above the houseline over to another part of the town to aid in the confusion of where they were truly attacking from. And if more people were drawn away to quell the fires so he would be forced to kill less than he had to otherwise then it was all for the best. He disliked not knowing what target he had hit and caused to burn in the distance but he couldn't afford to care right now. He knew the general layout of the town, having studied it on the map he was given with the mission orders so he knew which direction the business district was in and hoped that it was one of the expendable buildings that he hit and not a home.

He chanced a glance to his subordinate and close friend Biggs Duelitre that was to his side on his own mount of destruction. His face was pale ashen and he looked about to lose his stomach at any moment but still he trudged on. His loyalty to the Empire was commendable and he would see to it that Biggs was highly praised upon their return. He may not enjoy the work of expanding the Empire but not many truly did. Death takes its toll on a man when he has seen it, worse if he was the hand that dealt it. But it was always important to never lose their touch with humanity, with their reason for fighting. They fought for the people whom they disagreed with, for those who wished for peace yet had no real strength of their own to fight, for the innocents who he tried so desperately to keep away from the pain and death of the world.

And so it was they trudged on through the ever more burning landscape of the town that once held a semblance of peace. They had killed many men so far today and he knew and dreaded that the battles were far from over. The sun was creeping over the horizon and fully in view for all those who could look away from the scene of death for a moment. He always liked the sunrise, it reminded him of the Emperor. _Out of darkest night came the light which chased the horrors of the dark away. It cleansed my soul and burned fear from it, and with its rays I was healed of doubt and pain_. From the pages of his favorite book, _Leaving Dark Behind_ by Garland Chaosbane he recalled a passage that mirrored the feelings he felt upon seeing a new sunrise. Written during the War of the Magi when mankind almost was driven past the precipice of destruction, it was a rare find and the book was an heirloom of the Antliones family and had been for more than twenty generations. Its pages withered with age and use but still held every bit of feeling and awe for him. The Emperor was like that, from the darkness of chaos and uncertainly he had risen up and given hope to the people of Vector. With him came peace and order and just like the cleansing rays of the sun, he had showered hope to the people of a war-torn continent; he had united them behind a firm and just cause and Wedge was more than willing to give his all for the great man who had brought peace to one continent and was bringing it to a second.

For that cause he fought on, he killed those who opposed the Emperor hating in his heart being the one to deal death to others and even deeper hated himself for being willing to do it. But he was the superior officer in command of the operation, of the mission. He had to stand strong, not letting personal anguish or sadness conquer him when the Emperor was never conquered. He would stand tall and fight hard for the dream of a better tomorrow, and would deal burning death to those in his path. He would not back down, now or ever from a task no matter how daunting. And so he thrust the levers on his mount's console forward to provide greater speed to the deathly beast. _The quicker this is over, the less we will have to kill_, being the thought that pervaded his mind as he charged another group of miners armed with pickaxes and courage; neither of which were effective to deter him from his cause.

The mines were carved out of the rock wall of the canyon to their north and not more than a few hundred paces away from the grizzly procession of destruction. The guards having not long ago learned that they weren't being attacked inside of the buildings and that if they stayed at a distance without attacking then they were spared their lives. Having no desire to send themselves to an early grave they had resigned themselves to standing watch over the homes of their families and friends from the doorsteps, almost seeming to dare the attackers to near the houses and attack; fear clearly evident on their faces yet willing to fight and die to protect those they loved; an admirable trait indeed for any man, even more so if he were properly trained and taught the value of service to the Empire.

Having never entered the Narsche mines before Wedge was unprepared for how dark it would be. He had seen moonless nights before, he had been inside the dungeons beneath the capital Vector but he had never seen such utter and complete darkness. It seemed almost alive as it swallowed the group of three as they entered the threshold that granted passage to the location of what they had come to find. Without having entered not even a hundred paces of the entrance, the dark had encroached upon him so much that he was forced to light the way with the beam of light from the mouth of his beast. Although fearsome and mighty with strength and the power to destroy they also were capable of so much more. He likened himself to one of the mounts he rode so often, useful, strong, with the power to destroy yet only used in that manner when needed to further the needs of the people as a whole. A tool was used in any manner in which it was needed, a prime example being the miners that lay dead in the city. Their pickaxes were used to mine, to build, to provide for their families; but when the need arose their purpose changed, to one of war, where a beneficial tool became a dealer of death because there was no other way to fight. How sad that those tools would return once again to their original purpose and not think any better of it.

The ceiling was high for a normal man and therefore tall enough for the miners to walk in easily but with the mounts the Magitek Riders rode, it made it impossible to stand tall and straight for the majority of the time. He could see just fine from his perch, but being the over six foot 4 inch man that Wedge was, it was often difficult to stretch his back as they travelled ever deeper into the black darkness. Around a thousand and a half paces in the tunnel branched into three passageways with absolutely no indication in which direction was the way to their destination. Wedge reached down to his side and pulled out his map of the town hoping that it a portion dedicated to the underground labyrinth that they were in.

"Damn," he said swearing loudly, frustration evident in his voice after looking at his worthless (underground at least) map they were given. "There's no way that we can find our way through here without a guide and I doubt that the people back there would be very willing to show us the way." _Just wonderful, we have no hope of completing our mission without personal knowledge of these damn tunnels and we need to be out of here before too soon. We haven't slept in over twenty hours and they'll just hide in wait in here for when we stop to rest and then they will attack us unawares and we fail. There has to be a solution to this._ He angrily put the map away so as to free his hands to control his mount and looked at the three openings. One of them had to lead to the Esper, but which one?

After contemplating for several minutes the different passageways and finding absolutely no sign whatsoever as to which one he should go down, Wedge was just about to simply guess the right one and hope that it led to where they needed to go. Finding no other idea he had come up with appealing either he started toward the opening when he heard one of the Magitek Armours begin moving toward the center tunnel. Turning he saw that it was the girl that was with them. Having known how silent she had been and how she had no free thought he ordered her to stop and explain to him what she was thinking of doing, going off on her own.

"It is down there," she said in her quiet yet easily heard voice. "How in Oni's name do you know that? You have never been here and I sure as hell know that you didn't ask someone for directions," Wedge stated more frustrated at his own lack of knowledge than at her own choice of tunnel. "I can hear it." Came the soft and emotionless reply. "It beckons me for release, for freedom from the chains that bind."

Thoroughly confused by what she said, yet knowing her innate ability might actually be useful now he consented to allowing her to take front. Not to let it look like he was allowing her to lead he stated, "We will find this _thing_, and take it back with us before the people of this foolish town even realize that we have found it. You, _Witch_, will be taking point. I do not want anything to surprise us okay? You see it and if it isn't the object we kill it." His disdain of both her and the Esper could easily be heard but she acted as if it had meant nothing to her, perhaps it hadn't but who really knew what went on in a women's head, let alone a witch's one?

Having said that, they began once again treading their way through the dark passages of the Narsche Mines, hoping that the girl really could "hear" the way to their destination. She led them down tunnels and through intersections with rarely a glance to a different path or behind, her intents and focus clearly on what was ahead of her. Wedge thought that they had seen that same turn twice before when he saw the passageway begin to open up and they walked into an expansive and impressive cavern. Walking further into the cavern on his mount he paid little attention to what was in front of the girl until he heard a slight increase in the whir and hum of the beast of metal on which she rode. That was all the warning he had before a cackle of electricity was heard and what seemed to be a lightning bolt shot forward from the mouth of the girl's beast to hit something in the distant end of the cavern.

Once the shock from the bright light and the harsh sound had faded slightly Wedge turned to face her, anger apparent not only on his face but reflected all the way up to his eyes as he shouted loudly, "What in the name of the burning hells were you thinking, just randomly shooting off bolts. They didn't know where in the caves we were but now they heard that all the way to the entrance I bet. You're going to get us killed Witch!" His tirade was cut short when he heard a low feral growl come from the end of the cavern that was hit. He turned his gaze straight to the creature that was slowly snaking its way over to them. Its growl was deep and throated and he could tell by the sound that it was quite large even if he wasn't listening to the shuffling sound of flesh and scales on rock that was coming closer.

When the creature came within seeing distance of the light, he realized how massive it really was. It looked like a turtle, if a turtle had ever grown about five men wide and at least three men tall with a large snaillike spiral shell that crackled with energy. It crawled on its two front legs that were wider around than his own waist, with two even larger hind legs carrying the massive weight of the shell. Claws were sharp as they scraped the ground and made a screeching sound when the creature walked as the claws were longer than the distance that it lifted up its legs. Its beak was hooked and opened wide to shriek out a statement of anger and dislike. While looking at the thing he realized what it was he was staring at. "Damn it all. We were told to avoid the Whelk if we could. It will be nothing but a hindrance and too dangerous to attack head on without losing one or more of us." Thinking quickly he was just starting to formulate a plan of attack when the Whelk opened up its jagged beak and let out not a screech but a bolt of electricity that seemed as if to weave through the air as it curved towards the few who were across the cavern.

The explosion was deafening, the light blinding and for a few moments before the white light began to fade, Wedge wondered if he had been killed so easily in the service of his Emperor. That fear quickly subsided as white faded to darkness and he saw the girl, the witch, standing high on her mount before them as the air still seemed to crackle about her and the slowly closing mouth of the metal beast she was on. Then it clicked in his shock-addled mind, she had fired a bolt straight at the coming assault and had It either deflected or explode prematurely before it hit the group. Wanting to thank the girl for the close call but quelling the thought before it could effectively manifest itself he vocally starting barking out orders to the other two officers. "The Whelk has the Oni's strength and control over lightning and we can't get close enough to attack it with those claws of his. He moves faster than you would think or give him credit for. Don't let it fool you. Keep a good distance and assault it with the ice beam that you have Biggs. Don't even think of attacking it with your bolt again Witch, for every bolt we send its way, we're going to be on the receiving end of a stronger one."

The irony of his command to the girl was lost to Wedge as he thought desperately on how to come out of this both alive and in one piece. The creature was strong, that was for certain, and if he wasn't careful, none of them would make it out of this. _Come on, come on, there has to be some method of beating it_, he thought as he moved his mount to the side to hopefully get out of its sight to ready an attack from behind. His ears were still ringing from the last blast and he had managed to evade the brunt of the hit, he didn't want to think what would happen if he were actually hit by a blast from the creature. _What were we told about this thing? Big beak, check; sharp long claws, check; lightning breath, painful check; anything else they told us?_

His mind went back to a few weeks ago when they landed near the South Figaro port and were given their final debriefing. _"There is a beast that roams the caverns and underground landscape up in the northern mountains. It has been rumored that the Narsche people have tamed a creature and are capable of using it as a means of defense during an attack. Take heed that you do not come into contact with it. It has a strong body and an even stronger shell. What makes it so dangerous is the capacity to discharge electricity through its beak. This may come as a shock to you but the Whelks are surviving creatures of war that were left after the War of the Magi ended nearly a millennium ago. As a race they were touched by the Gods themselves and were given command of the lightning element. The natural cause is that their limbs have a thick almost tar-like substance that it uses as insulation. The benefit to that is while moving it can slowly charge up lightning in its shell which it uses as a cache of energy while the insulation in its legs allow it to contain that energy without losing any of it to the earth. That makes it a verifiable thundercloud of potential and is lethal on the best of terms. There was one found a few decades ago in the mountains and we believe it to still be alive. They live quite long for beasts. Should you encounter it, engage it with extreme caution and avoid it if possible."_ His superior had given a lengthy explanation of the beast and its mannerisms, but how could any of it be used to take one down right now?

As he thought of this he let his anger build just as it always did when he was reminded of the beings that also partook in the War of the Magi, the Espers. These Whelks were comrades in arms to the insidious Espers and if they were allies of them then they deserved death. Hatred was apparent on his face as he quickly decided that the best way to deal with this and any other beasts that were related in any manner with the enemy of old was the same as the rest; with flames and death. With that thought in mind, he urged his mount to quicken its pace to move around and flank the being that deserved destruction. The group slowly were scattering about the cavern not a one of them getting closer than they had to in order to avoid the long dagger-like claws that scraped and pierced the ground as it turned one way then the other in an attempt to see all of its attackers at once, yet each preparing for an attack that could very well bring swift death to any of them.

When Wedge had reached about parallel to the side of his enemy, he let anger and hatred get the better of him and caused his mount to send a concentrated blast of flaming death at the whelk. It saw and predicted the attack and retaliated in kind by turning its face to its new target whilst loosing its own blast of crackling death. The two forces collided and caused both to veer off target creating two more massive explosions in other areas of the cavern. Biggs, not letting the opportunity go to waste darted in quickly on his mount and pulled his personal sword out of the scabbard on his hip and quicker than the creature could realize it, had struck it on its hind right leg while the beast, acting on quick instinct struck fast and hard at the thing that had wounded it with the arm that was on the same side. The cringing sound of claw on metal could be heard followed not long after by a cry of pain as he hadn't been able to evade the glancing blow that had easily shred through the supposedly reinforced Magitek Armour. Biggs urged his now wounded and bleeding beast of metal to get out of reach of the whelks quick claws before it had the idea or opportunity to attack again.

Wedge heard the cry of pain, he saw around the edge of the whelk to his now injured friend. He didn't look very good. His left arm hung limp with brackish liquid seeping through the shoulder of his brown uniform that caused it to look almost black in the dark area. His mount was damaged, badly. Wedge harbored no great hopes that he would be able to defeat the beast without Biggs' assistance if he was taken out of the fight. He glanced down quickly at the display in front of him on his Magitek Armour as he urged it forward in a sprint hoping that it would be able to fire another shot of flame quickly and serve as a distraction to cover Biggs' escape. Cursing under his breath at seeing that time was not on his side at the moment, he charged anyways while pulling his own sword out and hoping to play the distraction sufficiently. Before he could reach his target though, he saw a ball of flame roughly a foot in diameter scorch the face of the whelk. He turned his head swiftly to his right and saw the outstretched hand of the witch and her look of concentration and fatigue as he heard the screech of pain that came from what was hit. His attention now focused on the whelk as he saw that the flames had burned its eyes enough that they were closed to shut out the pain and it was squealing in both anger and pain.

Looking at his display again he saw that the Magitek Armour was quickly charging and would be capable of wielding death by the time he had reached the beast. He slowed his approach to hopefully mask his sound as the creature still thrashed about in pain and blindness while uttering both growls and shrieks that curled his blood. When he believed that he was sufficiently close to his enemy's face, he pulled a lever on his mount that caused the Armours beak to open and fire a point blank blast of roiling death to the face of the whelk. Its death cry was painful to the ears and it thrashed as life left it. The flames continued to eat at its face and the cries grew strained as the throat and other facial structures were charred and burned and then melted under the unending heat and destruction that brought an end to its sad existence. Without waiting to watch it die, Wedge sped quickly to his companion's side hoping that the injury he had sustained wasn't life-threatening.

"How bad is it?" Not even bothering to ask the witch of her state, his question was directed straight at his friend. "Not as bad as it could have been. The Magitek Armour took most of the blow. I'm not saying I haven't felt better but I can take worse than this," he replied with a pained smirk. Wedge allowed his shoulders to relax slightly knowing that if Biggs had the energy and disposition to joke around than it couldn't be that bad. He turned to look at the woman and was debating whether to thank and congratulate her for her quick thinking and help or just ignore her. After some internal debate, he looked at her and while she was still breathing quite heavily from the exertion of performing her magick he offered a quick, "I'm glad you didn't let him die." As that was the closest thing to a thank you as he would ever offer the witch, he turned back to his friend and watched him trying to wrap a piece of cloth around his upper arm to quell the bleeding.

Misinterpreting the look that he was receiving as disappointment, Biggs was quick to tell his superior, "I apologize for not firing the ice blast like you ordered, I saw how it reacted to your attack and thought that if I could get in close enough then it wouldn't be able to react in time. When it hit me, it bashed in the cannon on my Armour so I wasn't able to get off my ice attacks. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more use to you Wedge." Regret was obvious in his voice but there was still a trace of happiness in it as well. _He is probably happy that it was himself that was injured and not me, he's always such a martyr like that._ Well if you say that you're alright then let's go grab this thing and get back out of here before they come charging in here thinking that they can stop us and you get even more injured than you already are now.

The trio turned their mounts to the far end of the cavern and although Biggs' Armour was damaged its speed wasn't hampered very much and they were able to make their way quickly to the other exit of the room where they fought. After traveling for a few hundred more paces, the tunnel opened up once again into another cavern though this one wasn't quite as expansive as the first. Staring across the smaller cavern Wedge's eyes looked for the first time upon what they were there for. Their lights were refracted and reflected through the ice that held it imprisoned causing all manners of disturbing shadows to coalescence on the walls as they approached.

It stood about three men tall and stood on two legs, but that was where the normality ended. It had a birds face and a hooked powerful beak that seemed as if to strain against the ice itself as it was carefully watched by the group. From behind its back came two powerful looking wings that were not as long as he had expected; they seemed to be intentionally cut short or at least that's what it appeared to him. But what it lacked in length it more than made up for with color. Each feather looked to be a different color, ranging from those found in nature, to some that Wedge knew would never be found outside of a clothing market or as dye. With the ice and the light around the Esper the colors seemed that much more vibrant as he studied them. Yet the most disconcerting part of it was its eyes. They showed an intelligence that was unmatched outside of man himself in the world. They were not a beasts eyes, but of someone or some_thing_ that knew what was happening around it. If he didn't know for a fact that this thing had been dead for almost a millennium he would have sworn, in the name of Minerva herself, that they were watching him. With every step he took , an uncomfortable itch increased between his shoulder blades and he felt like he was being watched. It was a very disturbing feeling when you knew that there was no one else in there but them.

Nearing the entrapped being, Wedge began thinking of possible ways to bring it out of there. The tunnel walls were too short to pull it out and he didn't have the time to widen and expand the already well-used tunnel system. It was just too big, _that's probably why the people of the town still hadn't moved it either_, he thought. He was beginning to think that his superiors had given him an impossible task when the girl started urging her mount toward the creature. Curious and slightly fearful, he turned to watch what she was doing. Sure she had led them here, but that just presented another issue of just what she was truly capable of now that she was in close proximity to the Esper.

She stopped no shorter than two dozen paces from the thing and just stared at it. No words, no motion, nothing; that disturbed him more than anything. The fact that she had moved of her own accord and just stood there was becoming more and more creepy and disturbing by the moment. He caused his mount to approach her and ordered her to tell him what was happening. "It cried for freedom." "Why would it do that and how? It's been dead for a thousand years." He questioned with little credulity in his voice at her words. _It can't be asking for its freedom, the tales say that these things can read the minds of man and it knows that we aren't here to free it._ "What are you saying? Are you telling me that it is asking us, the people who came here to capture and contain it for freedom?"

"No. It cried not for its own, but for mine." Before he could even begin to wonder what she was talking about, he felt the ground begin to shake slightly under him. He turned to Biggs to see if he was feeling it as well, and by the look on his face he knew that he wasn't imagining the rumble. Then a light flashed in the corner of his vision and he turned hand at the ready on the lever that would send death by fire to anything foolish enough to approach.

When he looked though, nothing was different. The thing was still in ice, and the stupid mindless girl was staring at it unmoving. No, wait; the thing had _shifted_. No, that couldn't be right, it was frozen, it can't move. But then he saw a glow emanate from the ice and it shifted slightly to more straightly face the women. As his fears of what was going on started to escalate, Wedge felt the ground start becoming more agitated and a flashing blue light start to not only come from the Esper, but to be repeating faster and faster. As he glanced back at Biggs to see if he was seeing what he was, a black light started to coalesce under him and began widening quickly. Without less than two heartbeats the shadow had reached wider than his mount was and then it started to raise up off of the ground as if it was a living being. He heard a cry of shock and fear from Biggs and barely had enough time to start his own before the blackness rose up completely enveloping him and he knew no more.

**Writer's Notes**

One of the most intriguing aspects of war that Final Fantasy VI has shown us is that although the soldiers fight and kill others, they do so following a cause not for wanton destruction. War is evil, there is no doubt of that; but those who fight in wars are not always so. War has no heart, no regret, no remorse; but warriors do and always will because they are living and have feelings. I wanted to show that through the minds of Biggs and Wedge, two of the most understated and underdeveloped characters in the FF VI universe, both canon and fiction. Everyone has their own beliefs and misguided though they may be, still care strongly for their own perceived rights and wrongs.

I do ask that those who read this please inform me of how I can do better. Constructive criticism is appreciated as the only way to better oneself is to be told what you're doing wrong. Through reviews or otherwise I can better this story and my writing as well as make it the very best that it can be.


	7. Chapter III Dreams and Realities

**Chapter 3 – Dreams and Reality**

Perspective: Terra Branford

The darkness was all around and no light was visible or even seemed to exist. Blackness was everywhere and the woman looked around in confusion and in surprise as the last thing she had seen previously was a blinding light not all-encompassing darkness. She looked around for any semblance of normality in the area in which she found herself and could see none. She was surrounded on all sides by a black space that was blank and gave no light. She began walking with arms outstretched to hopefully touch something, anything. After walking for a short distance thinking that perhaps she would encounter something a quiet hum started to appear in the air. Its origin was unknown but as it slowly increased in volume to a non-obtrusive hum, the area around her slowly shifted from black to a dark and dull grey.

As she looked around after she had become acclimated to the grey and unnatural light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, she noticed that there was nothing around her. There were no landmarks, no buildings, no people, not anything in sight but that dark grey light that was all-encompassing. Looking down, she saw that the very ground itself was also giving off the same grey light in such a manner that she couldn't even see what it was that she was standing on.

She wondered where she was and how she got there when it hit her more suddenly than she realized. _She was actually capable of thinking_ and this amazed her as her last conscious thought was of how she would never be able to think again. Trying to remember _when_ she thought that, of _where_ she thought that, or even of _why_ she thought it, she couldn't recall anything of the event. Attempting to think of where she was now, she tried to recall exactly how she ended up in a land of perpetual light and emptiness. Her eyes closed in concentration and her head bowed in focus as she tried to remember.

She gasped in shock as images assaulted and imposed themselves on her consciousness. A house on fire, surrounded by other houses, all on fire as well. A street, with many dead men in brown uniforms in various poses as dying had treated them unkindly and the fires licked at their bodies like a pet does to its master. A room with metal walls and a door barred with a large gated lock in front of her, with the sound of scraping feet as someone walked behind her as she sat in the lone chair with lashings of metal and rope holding her in place. Another street with dead men, this time filled with snow that looked like it had been painted red by some shoddy artist with little talent, sanity or care with the blood of the men that looked like a lightning bolt had hit them, their bodies twisted and charred in various clothing, all adapted to the cold weather.

She opened her eyes in surprise and pain as she thought of those she had seen dead. It looked so familiar; the scenes were so real she thought that she had to have been witness to the events themselves because no amount of description could draw that vivid an image in her mind. For some reason, she _knew_ that she had been there when it had happened. She _knew_ that she had witnessed those things, and fear gripped her tender heart as she suddenly and painfully _knew_ that she had been a participant of those happenings.

She shook with sadness as she felt a sudden onslaught of guilt and depression as she somehow knew that she had killed them. _But why? Why did I kill them? How? Were they trying to kill me or was I trying to kill them?_ Tears began to form in her eyes and caressed her cheeks as they fell while she began to deny what her mind told her had happened. _I didn't kill them. I couldn't have. There is no way that I would have done that. I'm not a murderer. I hate fighting. Why did I do that? It can't be true. It's not possible._

She began to feel hot, too hot, as she continued to argue within her own mind as to why she did or didn't do such things. A voice came and echoed from somewhere near, yet sounded so very far off from her. "Relax, you're safe now. Relax." The voice sounded almost caring yet she couldn't understand why anyone would be kind to someone like her, to a murderer like her. She looked around for the voice but with her tearing vision she saw nothing in the dark grey expanse of her sight which was slowly brightening to a medium grey light. _It's not safe. I don't deserve to be safe. I killed them. I deserve to be lying right next to them._

The heat continued to build around her as she shut her eyes to block out the images that seemed to have returned again from their absence. New images were there this time. A cold middle-aged voice that laughed with simple joy tinged with insanity as she saw flames flying from where she was to engulf another group of brown-clothed men in uniform. The cold voice saying, "Burn them, burn them all. Leave none alive. Torch the place to the ground. Leave nothing but death and destruction behind." And the laughing went on and on as she saw the flames dance higher and higher from the remains of once tall and quiet homes.

Another scene; this one while standing on a balcony of black metal surrounded by a few other men and women in brown uniforms similar in design to the men from earlier in her mind, yet different in style and manner with other markings that differed in meaning. Far in front near the end of the balcony overlooking a wide expanse of other soldiers that were similarly dressed as she, was a trio of people standing side by side. They were intriguingly different yet all stood with that air of supposed superiority that echoed the fact that they were in charge and others were meant to obey.

Two men and one young woman made up that group that stood there, all staring away from her, with the woman in the center of her two taller companions. To the woman's left was a very tall man, his armor brightened to a lustrous shine that almost made it glow with radiance. His long dark blue cloak trailing behind him as he stood beside the other two with his brownish hair short and well-kept with no chaos apparent in his looks or mannerisms. Order seemed to be his very essence as he looked as if he was the very embodiment of that thought and principle.

To the young woman's right was a man whose very looks and even feel was almost exactly opposite of the man previous. Shorter than the other man, he was still taller than the young woman in the center. He was dressed in garish clothing, a felt hat on his head with a feather sticking from the top at an odd angle, his unnaturally whitish hair sticking out chaotically from beneath his cap. His clothing was an example of his manner as he wore very bright and clashing colors that seemed to have no order in their creation or in their positioning. He was leaning forward slightly, almost as if he couldn't quite stand straight which added to the oddness of his supposed superior position in wherever this was. Situated behind like she was, she couldn't see his face but she could glimpse the side slightly and it looked like he had on a pasty and filmy substance that seemed as if to change the color of his face to a sickeningly white that would have only looked natural on those truly ill.

Between the two men stood a young woman that looked no older than she herself was. She was dressed in a simple yet concise white bodice/armor that was form-fitting yet efficient. Her white cloak trailed behind her in the wind as her hair that matched the color of the sun, was picked up as well and flew on the currents of the breeze before settling once again behind her back to show that it reached not quite waist high, but most certainly longer and lower than shoulder-length. Beside the other two, she seemed almost insignificant and even seemed to pale in comparison and size but the way she held herself showed that she was very much a part of that group, just as much as the others.

All three of them were staring forward at a lone man that was standing at the end of that large and spacious balcony. His hair was long and graying, yet his stance was firm and unforgiving as he stood tall and straight before the crowd. He seemed to be elderly in years, yet it seemed to be no mistake that all around him stared at him with a sense of adoration and awe that seemed to never cease. It seemed as if the very people worshipped him and what he stood for. As the cries of jubilation were ceased by the elder man raising up his hand to silence them, he began to speak, loudly and firmly, as one would if stating something so sure, so true, that there could be no other possibilities.

"My loyal children. A new age is upon us. The past ways of simple life will be done away with as we go forward in this new millennium. Through our power, we have begun to harness the might of ages past and to restore the lost power of Magic. We are the ones who will grasp the future that is brightly glowing for us and us alone. We will usher in a time and an era of peace and prosperity that has never been known before. It is our destiny, our cause, our very right to have power over this land. With the might of Magic at our disposal, we will become the new center of the world. All others will bow down to us and we will rule as we rightly deserve to over all others. Let us go forth for the future. Let this coming millennium be far brighter than the last. Nothing shall stand in our way. To the Empire!"

His speech finished and his boasting complete, the crowds erupted into cheer at their leader, mentor, their very example of strength and might and his eloquent words. He seemed to almost bask in the attention and the worship that he was receiving as shouts of "Long live the Emperor," and "Glory to the Great Gestahl," and "All hail Gestahl the Fearless," were heard among the people. The scene ended amidst cheers of joy and acclamation.

With her mind full, her head in pain, and her heart in confusion, the woman opened her eyes once again and saw the same plain and simple landscape exactly as before but this time with the light brighter and almost to a light white surrounding her from all places. The same kind voice from before spoke and echoed through the area with new words this time. "You're safe now. You don't have to be afraid anymore. Just wake up."

_So this is nothing more than a dream_, she thought. _But it can't just be that. It's too real, too terrible to be a simple nightmare. It had to have happened. And I don't deserve to be safe after what I've done. Just leave me alone. Let me stay here in this place of nothing where I deserve to stay._

Her retreat from the world of the conscious didn't last however as the area grew brighter and brighter and she had to close her eyes yet again but this time not to keep out images or thoughts but to keep the light away. Yet, she could still feel the brightness of the light through her eyelids as it continued to increase in magnitude and power. She could only keep out the light for so long until she eventually felt it become too strong and she entered the waking world.

*************************************************

The light that greeted her as she opened up her eyes was real this time and brighter than she would have liked. It took a few moments for her sight to return and her eyes to adjust to the uncomfortable glimmer of the lamps that provided light in the otherwise dark room. It felt like she hadn't opened her eyes or even moved any part of her body for quite a while. She felt exhausted and not at all well-rested, despite the fact that she could feel a soft bed underneath her with numerous blankets covering her as well.

Seeing that the bed she rested on was laid up against the wall to her right, she turned her head slowly to her left side to get a better view of the room she found herself in. It was small but quaint. The lamps hanging from the wall above her head gave off ample light to see and she took advantage of that opportunity to look around. A small circular table that was actually more of a stand was next to a chair in which sat a man of elderly stature dressed in clothing seemingly designed and fitted for life in cold weather. He was apparently asleep and she felt no great need to wake the unknown individual so she continued to look about. There were a few pictures adorning the walls, mostly of a woman she didn't recognize and what seemed to be a younger version of the man in the chair.

She felt something covering her forehead that was pressing down on her head. Something that seemed to be wrapped around her so she rustled a bit underneath the blankets as she tried to pull her hands out from where they rested. She felt quite weak as if she hadn't eaten in a long time and it took more strength and effort than she felt was necessary or comfortable to pull her hands up to her face to feel out what it was that was weighing down her head. Before her hands could reach her head, her motions had not gone unnoticed.

Apparently her movement had awakened the man sitting there, because she heard a sharp intake of breath followed by a soft snort that was replaced nonchalantly by a slight yawn as she heard movement from the chair and its sole occupant. Turning to look she found herself seeing two hazel eyes that stared straight at her with what seemed to be a sense of hesitation and hope at the same time. The man smiled at her and she realized how odd it seemed to fit on his face, almost as if he wasn't accustomed to smiling often or something of the like. It also happened to accentuate his already slightly overgrown nose and the too-big-for-comfort glasses that rested on it.

He spoke and she recognized it as the kind echoing voice from her troubled sleep and wondered what he had meant when he had said, "you're safe now," during her delirium. The timbre of his voice was soft yet commanding in a way, such that others who heard it knew that when this man spoke, then was the time to listen and pay heed.

"I see that you are finally awake. Welcome back to the world of the living. You had been under that fever for almost four days when it finally broke last night. I was worried for a while there that you might not make it through. That fever was unnatural in its strength and what it did." He spoke with such a calm reassurance that she relaxed slightly at his kind words. She felt like she should be unaccustomed to kindness and that only seemed to cause her to think again. Just where was she anyway? She decided to voice her question and opened her mouth with the intention of asking the man just that when all that came out was a rasping breath followed quickly by a cough. She attempted to sit up to better situate herself and try again when he spoke first while rising to his feet.

"Not so fast. You just overcame a terrible fever and haven't eaten anything with little to drink the past few days. Let me get you something to parch your thirst as well as wet your voice to see what we can find out about you." Yet again his kindness was so disarming that she could hardly do anything other than watch as he grabbed a wooden cup mostly filled with liquid from the table that was nearby. He walked over and helped her sit up with the blankets still covering her entire body, enough to drink as he brought the cup to her lips and she tasted cool refreshing water. It was a simple blessing, but a very much appreciated one as she slowly sipped what she could and fell back heavily on the bed beneath her.

"Where… where am I?" Her voice soft yet capable, she asked the man in whom she felt she could place some trust in. That was the first of many questions that were flying around her head faster than she could possibly voice them. But with her throat slightly refreshed with the water she could at least speak that one most tantamount question first.

The look she received from the man was not what she was expecting. Instead of a simple nod of understanding and expectance, she received a quick look of incredulity and shock mixed with a tinge of sadness that left his face so quickly, if she wasn't as good as she was at seeing and understanding the emotions of others she might have missed it. The look was quickly replaced, almost too quickly to be natural by a small smile and gratitude in his expression that never seemed to reach his eyes.

"My, my. You seem to have recovered quite quickly from that experience. Enough to not only be coherent but to talk as well. Quite remarkable actually." The manner in which he looked at her yet again had her feeling mildly uncomfortable and not only because of the kindness she saw there. There was a sense of confusion and study that was in his eyes as he looked at her. Almost as if she was a puzzle box that he had received and then after thinking he solved it, happened to open up and reveal a smaller and much more complex puzzle inside. What bothered her more was the fact that she realized that he hadn't answered her question either.

Believing that the answer to her question would not be forthcoming, and that any other questions she asked would be treated in the same manner, she instead deciding to voice a statement rather than a question.

"My head… it hurts." That, she could feel more than anything. Actually almost every single part of her hurt, but her head was what ached the most, and having that weight still pressing down on her forehead wasn't helping matters at all. Since her hands were already almost out of the blankets in which she lay because of her previous attempt to feel her head, she pulled them completely up the way to her face and felt what weighed her down.

Bandages, quite a large number of them it seemed were covering the top, front, and even side sections of her forehead. They were thicker than she would have expected because it seemed that they stuck out from where her head should end at least an inch and felt far heavier than normal bandages should be. Having ascertained what it was and knowing that the man standing nearby was the one who bandaged her up and watched over while she lay with a fever, she knew that she owed him a statement of gratitude and thanks.

"Thank you. I don't even know who you are and yet you have cared for me." She tried to remember if she had seen him before but even lacking what she could coherently remember at the moment, his face seemed unfamiliar and she doubted they had met before. His face was not the only thing unfamiliar about him either, his kindness felt foreign to her, as if she had never been the recipient of kindness before. That thought did not sit very well with her.

"Oh forgive me," he said hastily with a small amount of embarrassment. "I have been so worried about you getting better over these last few days that it seems that I have neglected my manners. You have been here for so long that I was beginning to forget that although I have seen you, you do not know who I am. My name is Arvis Trinbel. I am a professor at the Narsche University here in the city, and found you during my late night stroll five nights ago. Gave me quite a scare too, I wasn't expecting to find a young woman such as yourself unconscious in the snow with a heavy fever."

She took in all that he said and accepted it as truth. After all, he had helped her and she had no reason to disbelieve him so far. He had found her out in the cold and took her to what appeared to be his home out of pure kindness and had gone beyond that by bandaging her up and offering her water and a smile. She was slowly regaining her strength and began moving about underneath the blankets of the bed to try to get up. Her motions were interrupted by Arvis' words before she could do so though.

"Before you try to stand, I think you would want to know that when I found you, you were injured and your clothing was ripped in numerous places. I took the liberty of dressing your wounds, but unfortunately that required removal of your clothing, so before you get out of bed I would keep that in mind. " He said it so simply and yet she could already feel the blush that was creeping up her cheeks to stain her face as the thought of someone else seeing her unclad caused her a great deal of embarrassment.

He began lightly chuckling at her reaction, so she bent her head down with embarrassment to which he responded with more open-hearted laughter. She kept her head down and her lime-green tresses covering her face to hide her blush and her embarrassment. His laughter died out slowly and he spoke again. "Relax, it had to be done to help prevent infection of your wounds. No need to be embarrassed, you're young enough to be my own daughter. I treated you with the utmost respect while I treated your wounds. No need for shame here."

His words yet again, had a disarming effect on her and she found herself looking up at Arvis with a bashful countenance as she pondered his words. Still in slight shock at the situation she began to think instead of say anything. It seemed that she could trust this Arvis, even though she had never met him before. He was the only one she knew at the moment. And that's when it hit her. Her mind was slowly clearing, she was having a conversation with a complete stranger, albeit a nice one, and she couldn't remember anything before she woke up. Well, that wasn't a complete truth. What she could remember she didn't want to. Knowing that since she had never met Arvis before, he didn't know who she was or what she was doing here in… Narsche, did he say? With no hope of getting information from him, maybe she could have her clothing give her a spark of remembrance.

She decided that was the course of action to follow and asked bashfully, "Where are my clothes? I would like to get out of bed and I don't want to walk around without anything on." Her request was simple and she doubted that he would refuse her that privilege considering all that he had done for her, so it surprised her when he denied her question.

"I'm sorry, but I can't give you back your clothing. As I said before, they were ripped quite a bit and I can't very well have you wearing clothes that ragged. I had to toss them out, they were too destroyed to even be honestly called clothing anymore actually. You seem to be about my wife's size when she was somewhere around your age so some of her clothing should fit you." He spoke this while walking over to a wardrobe made of a dark wood that she couldn't name, and opened it up wide enough for her to see inside. He then started rummaging through it while continuing to talk. "You remind me a lot of her really. Well, before I married her. She seemed so demure and bashful before that. Ha. Once we were married she somehow found a way to tell me everything that I was doing wrong and could do better on. Oh, those were enjoyable times."

During his speech he had pulled out something red from the back part of the wardrobe, followed quickly by some other object that was of a light purple color. He reached down to the bottom area of the wardrobe and pulled out two red strap-on boots. Grabbing the three articles, he turned back to her once again and walked towards her while saying, "These should fit you, there are undergarments in the second drawer on the right side of the wardrobe. I'll let you get your own." Having said that, he promptly placed the articles of clothing on the lower end of the bed and proceeded to walk out of the room. His last comments as he left were, "Take your time, you may be weak because of the fever but I doubt that will slow you down for long. If you need me, please don't feel embarrassed, just call for me and I will help you as I can. I will be in the kitchen down the hall on the left." And then he left without a second glance back.

Waiting a full fifteen seconds until after Arvis left, she made the slow and labored process of getting up. While laying down only her head hurt, but upon sitting up and attempting to stand she realized that her whole body hurt and ached. It wasn't enough to stop her from getting up, but it was enough to make movement hard and unsteady as she walked slowly on weak legs to the aforementioned drawer. Looking in and not really giving much thought to it, dressed in the underclothing that was found there. That task completed she turned around and nearly fell over from turning too quickly. _Careful there, I don't want to actually have him come and help me get dressed now do I?_ After recovering enough to walk in still uneasy steps back to the bed she looked at what was actually laid out for her. She saw a red dress that was not as long as she would have liked that went up enough to reach her neckline but interestingly didn't cover her shoulders. She found along with the short dress an interesting style of cape that was a shade of dark yellow near the top but which changed in color dramatically as it went down the cape where it ended in a vibrant dark color of purple.

She slowly, with aching and sore muscles, put on the dress and found that Arvis was right, it fit her quite well actually. She walked with slowly more steady steps over to the wardrobe and found some white leggings that suited the dress and put them on to cover her lower limbs. She didn't like showing off her body to others. After a little bit of rummaging through the wardrobe, she found near the back where Arvis had found the actual dress, the unattached sleeves that went with the outfit. _Trust a man to forget the whole outfit and what goes with it._ After donning the sleeves and the cape that was attached by a simple necklace around the front of the neck she again went to looking through the closet. Smiling slightly she found that also there was some cloth that would be adequate to wrap around her waist and give her some semblance of covering her small hips from sight as well, she wrapped it around her and then turned, slowly this time, to look at a mirror that was placed in a functional spot across the room.

She didn't look like herself. Even though she couldn't remember much anyways, she didn't feel like she would normally dress like this. She felt… as if what she was wearing something that was far too elaborate for her, as if she had never worn nice things or extravagant clothing before. The entire look seemed to be just one big fantasy from which she didn't want to wake. Although the bandages on her head didn't add to the original style, it somehow suited her. Deciding that she had looked at her figure enough in the mirror, she walked back to the bed and, sitting on it, pulled on and laced her red heeled boots to complete the ensemble. Standing, content in her appearance, she made confident strides to the door and opened it up.

The hallway was simple and there were a few doors on either side but she ignored them and walked softly yet with a calm assurance to the end of hall where she turned left and looked in on the kitchen where Arvis was sitting at a round wood table with a book in his hand. Hearing a noise he looked up from his reading and smiled as she walked in. "You look marvelous my dear, come sit down. I don't usually have guests so my meals are normally prepared for just one, but I made something special for you today." His mannerisms seemed slightly more relaxed and less scrutinizing than before and it was a welcome change to her. She sat down at the only other chair across from him and looked at the food that was there. She really was hungry. After all, he had said that she was out for four days or so right? So she hadn't eaten in quite a while.

She began piling her plate with what food was there and proceeded to quickly ravage her plate in a manner only the truly destitute in manners or the undernourished can. His light chuckles added only a slight embarrassment this time at her manners, but her stomach far out-ruled her mind in choices of action at the moment.

After eating her fill and able to think more clearly, she looked up at Arvis and saw him, once again with a contemplative look on his face. _Why does he keep staring at me like that?_ Realizing that it was probably because of her rude manners, she resolved to start then and there and act as she knew she should.

"Uhm, Mr. Trinbel?" His blank look was gone quickly and he shook his head slightly out of his reverie at her comment. "Yes?" came the response. "I know who you are yet I haven't introduced myself." At this she paused, how was she going to tell him that she didn't remember anything, let alone her own name? But she had to try.

"I know this may sound strange, but I can't introduce myself. Be.. Because I don't even know who I am or even my own name." Her voice came out disheartened and quiet while he quickly responded back. "Who you were is never a measure of who you are now, or of who you may become in the future." It sounded false, rehearsed even. Glancing up at his eyes she knew that he had thought up that previously and was waiting for the right time to say it. "You knew I didn't remember, didn't you?" Her tone pointing, but not quite accusatory.

"I thought as much, but I didn't want to voice my ideas until after you were more comfortable and coherent, and dressed," he added at the end. "Why? How did you know that I can't remember?"

"Well, I have my reasons and I am just going to leave it at that for now, so you just relax and try to remember. How or why I thought as much doesn't concern you or threaten you at the moment, so there is no use worrying about it. Ah! Although I was not able to salvage your clothing, I would like to return something of yours that I believe might help a little." Standing he reached in his right pocket and pulled out what appeared to be a red jewel of some sort attached to a simple yet shiny silver chain. She instantly recognized it, as though she had never been apart from it. It belonged to her, how or why she didn't know, but that pendant was something very important to her. Handing it to her, she quickly unhinged it and, pulling her hair to the side, clasped it together behind her neck. It fit so comfortably, she knew that she was accustomed to it.

His eyes softly scrunched together in thought and slight displeasure at something and she wondered what. He stood and said, "With your hair down, it will get caught in your necklace, we will need to put it up to keep it out of the way." He walked out of the room, yet returned only a few moments later with a purplish-red small cloth in one hand and a brush in the other. "May I?" he asked softly as he approached her. Trusting him, she turned slightly so he could help, he began to straighten her hair somewhat with the brush and afterwards pulling her hair up into a ponytail and tying it with the cloth.

Stepping away from her, he looked down at her with a strange expression on his face, before bowing to her and taking her hand, he said, "It is truly a pleasure to officially meet you and introduce myself my lady. Arvis Trinbel, at your service." His proper style and antics brought a smile to her face and a giggle to her lips. When her small laughter had died down, she looked at him and responded without thinking, "Terra."

Her eyes went wide. _I know my name. That's my name. I'm Terra._ She looked at Arvis and he had a kind smile to which she knew he had understood. "My name is Terra," she said with more conviction and a happy sound in her voice. That simple statement meant the world to her right now. She was remembering.

"You're recovering quicker than I thought you would. You really are a remarkable young lady. I'm sure that all of your memories will come back as well; in time that is." He opened his mouth to say more but was interrupted by a loud and raucous banging on a door that was coming from another section of the house. His head turned quickly and his expression dropped at the sound.

"I had hoped that they would not be here so soon." He turned to her and said, "I know that you have a very gentle heart Terra. I know that you have been forced to do things that you wish had not happened, but the past is unchangeable. There are those who think that you should be punished for deeds done while under the command and force of another. I do not. Unfortunately those that do are here now to apprehend you and I will not allow you to be hurt anymore." The banging began again with greater force this time and his expression darkened while being both serious and sad as he continued. "You need to get out of here quickly. I cannot fight and you need to remain free. Follow me." He turned without even a glance back at her and quickly left the room while the banging began to be accompanied by some shouting coming from outside as well.

Terra followed Arvis without question and with complete trust as he wound his way down the hallway to the room in which she awoke. He walked straight to the wardrobe and after rummaging through to the back end she heard a creaking sound as the back of the entire wardrobe opened up like a door and he beckoned her forward. The shouts were growing in volume and she heard a cracking sound come from across the house as Arvis grabbed her arm and practically threw her into the wardrobe. "You have to leave, NOW. This will lead you into the caves behind Narsche. Run, fast as you can. Don't let them catch you. I'll send someone to get you as soon as I can. I hate to just help you and throw you out but I don't have a choice." Another loud crack came from across the house as he finished and she looked up with fear in her eyes at him.

"Don't worry about me. They won't hurt me, but they will you so leave quickly. I'll send help just go and hide quickly. Take care of yourself Terra." With the said he pushed her through the hidden doorway and closed it up quickly. She felt tears of concern begin to well up and she turned quickly before they could be shed while saying, "Goodbye, Arvis." As she raced down the dark tunnel, the only sounds being her own footsteps and the drops as her tears hit the hard cold earth beneath her feet as she ran.

*************************************************

The caves were dark but with the soft glow of her unique Pendant and her sharp eyes, Terra was able to make her way swiftly down the path. It had come to a junction a while back and she had heard sounds of hurried footsteps down one path with shouts of anger and hatred so she had very little choice in her direction. That was only the first of four splits so far, and she could only hope that her luck would be enough for them to not be able to follow her through all four of them. But once again, she heard the sounds of the angry group of men behind her and she stood up and away from the side of the cave where she was leaning to catch her breath to prepare to run again. _How did they know where I was?_ These tunnels were so confusing that even they wouldn't be able to know where they were, let alone follow her through them.

But here she was running again. Her feet were tired from running and her lack of adequate rest from her sickness was catching up with her quicker than she hoped as she ran quick as she could away from the group chasing her. _Why are they after me?_ She heard the scuffling of feet in front of her and that was all the warning she had before a man jumped out at her from the path in front trying to grab her by any means possible. Her fright was quick and she jerked just far enough out of his reach that his jump was too short and he landed on his face in front of her. Not bothering to check to see if he was alright, she took off running again, going past him quick as she could to get away. But before she followed the tunnel past another turn, she glanced around and saw the man standing and preparing to give chase.

He had on clothing made for cold weather, thick with furs and heavy too it seemed. As she ran off quickly she remembered when else she had seen clothing like that. It was a horrible memory but it came with strong vividness. Red snow, painted that way from the blood of men she had killed, all wearing clothing similar to what that last man had worn; houses on fire with more men rushing forward with pickaxes and other mining equipment to kill the assaulters of their city.

Now she didn't have to wonder why they were after her. They wanted revenge on friends and family killed, killed by her under orders and the command of someone else. She knew that she wasn't in control of herself at the time, even though she didn't know why she wouldn't have control over herself. The sound of running feet and the soft glimmer of lanterns alerted her to the fact that they were gaining on her from behind, so she quickened her pace best she could with her fatigue and turned right at the next intersection hoping and praying to whatever Gods might be listening that she make it away from them.

Her prayers were not to be answered though as she came rounding a corner only to see light ahead of her as well as behind. She was well and truly trapped now. She leaned heavily against the wall behind her trying desperately to catch her breath knowing that there was absolutely nowhere left to run too. The shouts grew louder and the lanterns light brighter as the two groups of men began to converge on her last bastion of solace and freedom.

Panic began to enter her system as she looked from one group to the other as they slowed to a walk seeing that she was not running anymore. She didn't want to be captured. She didn't want to be hurt. She didn't want to be killed for doing something she had no control over. She just wanted to be left alone. Her breathing slowing down to a tolerable level she started to understand what they were saying.

"So this is the Witch who killed our people." "Yeah, and now she can't run anymore, can she Cleitos." "She gave us quite the run didn't she?" "She can't get away now though, can she. Not unless she can fly through rock." "She's ours now."

Terra's face grew more troubled and scared with each passing moment as they all walked slowly closer and closer to her. _I don't want to die._ Many other thoughts came to mind, but that one was most prevalent. _I don't want to die. I don't want to die._ Her panic became too strong for her to think coherently anymore and she began hyperventilating. _I don't want to die. I don't want to die._ Her eyes closed to block out whatever was coming and she reached out to something, anything to keep her from being captured, to get away, to make it out of there.

She felt something in her chest, it was a kind of heat that quickly edged its way into her arms that were held out in front of her in quiet desperation to fend off the men. The heat grew and grew and she felt like her very arms were on fire. Just when she thought that it would never end she screamed in pure unabashed fright and fear of what was going to happen and the heat that she felt had built up into her arms almost instantly left and she heard an explosion that echoed in the caves so she couldn't tell from where it came.

She heard a cracking sound and felt the ground beneath her shift so she opened her eyes up to look at what was happening. Seeing all of the men standing around her a little more than twenty feet away with shock and utmost surprise on their faces, she glanced down and saw a crack that ran between her two feet. As she watched, within a single heartbeat the crack splintered and became a spider-web of fractures beneath her. She had time to barely begin a scream before she felt the ground shatter and collapse beneath her and she was swallowed up in the darkness below, only losing consciousness after hitting something hard beneath her.

**Writers Notes**

Of all the characters, Terra is the hardest for me to write because of her own lack of personality and depth of character compared to the other characters. At least in the beginning of the story. Later on her character development is something truly inspiring and her dedication to hope unwavering, but right now, she is just a young, scared, and unknowledgeable woman thrust into situations beyond her grasp.

For all of those who are wondering about Arvis' explanation of the Slave Crown, that will happen in the following chapter for my own choices and reasons. It will be dealt with and it will still feature a part in the story, just the method of introducing it and explaining it will be slightly different.

I know it might be kind of cliché to end both the last chapter and this one with fallings into unconsciousness but it seemed to be the best breaking off point from Terra's perspective and a fitting conclusion considering that the flashbacks were included at the start rather than after her fall from the upper cave levels.

Word Count: 7,616

Uploaded: 2008/11/14


	8. Chapter IV Guardians of the Past and Pre

**Chapter 4 – Guardians of the Past and Promises Present**

Perspective: Locke Cole

Locke Cole's attitude couldn't be worse at the moment. Here he was, trudging through thigh-deep snow with more than an inch of the wet mess already on his head and body. Oh no, today was not a good day. Yesterday wasn't any better either. Hell, this whole week didn't have a single bright spot to it. It had been a while since his last true "good day" and he hoped to break his current unfortunate and unpleasant streak soon; but that wasn't going to happen yet. He had a job to do here in this land of ice and misery.

Locke was not generally a sad or disgruntled individual. He prided himself - a little too much and too loudly, some would say - on being capable of finding the smallest silver lining on any rain cloud. He believed that life was far too short to be spent angry, and that you should enjoy it while you can. That belief had gotten him into a number of situations that he came out alright in, more from his quick feet and quick wits, than from much else. But it was his motto and standard, and one to which he would hold for as long as he could. Yet, today was severely testing his ability to maintain an air of content and happiness.

He had been hoping to take a week or two away from the job of being the messenger to people who thought they were above travel and information gathering, but no, just as he had been about to leave, he was greeted at the door by someone delivering a letter that flew in that morning by way of messenger hawk with depressing news. Old man Arvis had claimed that it was "urgent" and that he couldn't waste a single day in getting to Narsche as quickly as possible. No mention of what he was needed for, or why he had to travel straight there. He had his guesses though.

Being as skilled as he was at gathering information without drawing attention to himself, he had heard his fair share of rumors about what "those crazy miners" had dug up, way up north in Narsche. He knew it wasn't some old rock or even just an old relic from the time of the War of the Magi, some were claiming that what was found was _alive_, or would have been, had it not been a millennia since its death. Which meant that it wasn't just any old thing was uncovered, but an actual Esper from that deadly war that had been found. And an Esper, even a dead one, was something that needed to be dealt with as soon as possible.

So, here he was, about to enter the northernmost city in the world, where spit froze before it hit the ground, chasing after a Myth that was a thousand years old. He had to leave amid his promised vacation time that had already been delayed for reasons of "severe importance" (for the third time in as many months) and he was off again to another remote location; this time, searching for a thousand year old dead thing that was unfortunate enough to be discovered by naïve miners.

_Sometimes I wonder where I get my luck_, he asked himself while walking towards the southern entrance of the city of Narsche that was looming closer and closer with every passing minute. The cold would have frozen his ears by now, had he not covered them with his bandana that covered the top of his head. He was never without it, that small piece of cloth was ever present and never left his side. In a way, it felt almost like an extension of his own self sometimes. The designs on it were of different constellations and other celestial scenes, all serving as a reminder that there were bigger things out there than himself.

His blue worn leather vest gave him some protection from the elements, having survived many an adventure and different climate over the months and years of travel. His pants sported a number of cuts and holes that were fixed with somewhat shoddy stitch work, but they were comfortable, so they continued to be used and more worn as time went by. He had a few shirts; all were worn somewhat thin and had been through a lot. He was currently wearing his sky-blue one as it could dampen the effects of the cold a little bit more than his other shirts. The brown leather gloves he wore were one of two pairs he owned. Those he had on were the fully covering pair as to keep out the cold, whilst his fingerless gloves were in the small but effective pack he had on his back.

As he drew nearer the outer reaches of the city, Locke noticed that something was… _off_ today about the guards. Every other time that he had visited, the city patrol was simply complacent. This time as he approached, he saw that instead of the usual two guards at the farthest outpost, there were six very attentive, well equipped and quite stressed men trying, it seemed, to see the whole world where they stood, from the wide eyes and serious expressions on their faces. It was unexpected and worried him a little bit with what might have happened while he had been gone to cause the city watch to change their guard system like that.

When he was within earshot of the guards, one called out to him loudly, "Who are you, and what is your business here? Answer quickly, and we will decide whether to allow you to continue." _This is new_, Locke thought as he stopped a fair distance away as he called back, "It's me, Locke Cole. I come from South Figaro with information for the Narsche University. I'm on an errand for a friend and need to finish it as soon as I can." Hoping that would suffice for now, or at least until he came across someone he could recognize or get their help to convince the guards that he should belong there as much as the rest of the people, he began walking forward again.

"I said halt! You will not come any closer to the city. One more step forward and I'll be forced to make you stop." The guard's voice was strong with anger and hatred was apparent when he replied to Locke's continued journey towards the city he had sworn to defend. When he realized that the intruder was not stopping, even with his current words, he said again. "This is your last warning. I will not say it again. Stop or I will make you! This city has taken enough damage without you adding to it."

Locke couldn't believe it. Just four months ago, the city of Narsche had been a peaceful and complacent place, one of little prejudice, where the cold wind and snow stole the heat out of any anger or hatred before it could fully form. _What happened to make him like this?_ He decided to keep walking toward the city calling the guard's bluff of physical assault. _They won't attack me. I haven't done anything this time to make them hate me, and only three people know what I did last time, one of them me._ With alarm, Locke noted that the guard began to march straight at him while slipping his sword out of the scabbard on his waste.

"I warned you for the last time fool. Now learn your lesson with steel." With those words, the ill-tempered guard came marching at him while four of his five companions watched with disinterest and nonchalance as the fifth man stood sleeping through the entire incident while leaning on the staff he was using.

The guard was a tall blunt man in both his language and his mannerisms; as such he walked straight towards Locke with a look of hatred in his eyes and fire in his heart to kill this man who threatened to impart more harm upon the place of his home. He gripped the weapon in his hand with a clenching fist and swung swiftly at Locke's head expecting it to meet resistance in the form of death on the individual. But Locke was quicker than he thought.

Locke realized quite swiftly that the man in front of him wanted to kill him. The guard had actually swung his sword at him attempting to end his life. He had ducked and rolled to the side without thinking and had reached his left hand behind him to grasp one of the daggers he had hidden beneath his pack while standing slowly and using his right hand in a placating manner tried to calm the deranged guard.

"Whoa there. What did I do to you? I'm just trying to relay some messages to someone at the Narsche University." Only having moved a few feet from the enraged man, he didn't have long to speak before he was attacked again. Thinking quickly and knowing that he did not want to kill the guard but not wanting to face death himself, he had to disarm the man and explain the situation before any of the other guards decided to join in the assault.

When the guard swung his sword this time, Locke was not only ready for him but was far faster than him. When the sword came at him from his left side, Locke waited for it to get within a hand's breadth of his side before he moved. Faster than anyone there could have seen, Locke had pulled out his dagger with his left hand and had darted in closer to the guard than his own outstretched hand grasping the hilt of the swinging sword. Locke sent his right fist into the man's stomach then brought his left elbow down hard against his wrist causing the guard to drop the sword he was swinging. Before the sword hit the ground from being flung from the grasp of the guard, he was on the ground with a dagger being held against his throat in a downwards slant and sporting a rapidly bruising left cheek and a numb jaw from the punch that Locke gave him.

"Look, I really don't want any trouble but I don't like being attacked for no reason. I just want to deliver a message. Is that too much to ask?" The noise from the fight and the heated voices had brought the sleeping guard from his slumber and after a moment's hesitation to understand what he was seeing, he rushed forward in an attempt to calm the situation.

"Reikan? Locke?! What's going on? Why are you here? What are you doing with that knife to him? Nevermind, I already can see what happened. Reikan! I thought I told you to not blatantly assault any visitors to the city. Not everyone's involved with what happened. You keep jumping at shadows no matter who makes them. We're all stressed after what happened, but you can't keep accusing anyone that comes by. I know this man; he's a messenger for Professor Trinbel over at the University. I've had drinks with him at the tavern before. Now Locke, get off him and put that knife away." The quick-thinking and obviously superior guard spoke with increasing terseness as the tirade went on while taking swift glances towards Locke as he stood and put his dagger away for any sign of mistrust or treachery.

Locke remembered the man. He had bet him 500 gil that he could out drink him at the tavern four months past when he was last here in December of the year previous whilst celebrating the new millennium as well as the new year. Locke had learned to drink from the best and he had been sure of his win, but the man had been a good drinker, and he hadn't come out on top that time. Being the gentleman that he was, he had paid the man and spent that night asleep at the inn next door. He neglected to mention to him that he had "liberated" that very 500 gil from his companion earlier that night. No harm done, and if he never figured it out, it was all the better.

"Thanks Finrel. I was starting to think that I wasn't going to make it inside the city." Locke said, once Reikan had been told off enough for attacking an innocent traveler and had walked back to the outpost watching the land around for any signs of danger, real or fictional. "What's going on? Last I checked, guards aren't usually this paranoid."

Turning to look at Finrel, Locke just noticed the strongly bloodshot eyes and deep circles under his eyes. Being from Narsche, his face was normally hidden beneath many layers of clothing, but even so, it was not enough to keep out the view of just how tired and how weary he was from Locke. "What happened to you? You look like something a flock of Chocobos ran over. You must be standing on will alone. What are you doing still out here on patrol?" _For that manner, why are all of them on patrol? They all look just as drained as he does. What are they doing?_

His companion sighed wearily while turning to face towards the town as he said, "A lot more than I ever wanted to happen in Narsche, let me tell you. Come on, the other guards won't let you through either unless I go with you to vouch for your being here. Besides, some of the others lost family members also and are even more angry and vengeful than Reikan is." Finrel's words had an impacting effect on Locke. He knew that his friend had spoken many a time about how he hoped that Narsche would become livelier or more interesting. To hear him say that more had happened than he wanted was disturbing in the implications. That comment on lost family was worrying Locke as well.

Locke turned to face northward again, following the exhausted man's lead by starting out like before towards his cold destination. The walk wasn't too long, yet not short by any means, so conversation began easily as Locke asked about what had happened in Narsche since he was there last.

"So why is everyone acting so strange? What could have happened to Narsche while I was gone?" Locke said attempting to begin a conversation with his weary companion. Digging for information had become second nature to Locke. He had been doing it for so long, it had become a simple and unbreakable habit to search for the truth in anything. If he had realized what he was doing, in actuality informally interrogating his companion, he would have felt a small sense of shame at doing so to him. As it was, he didn't even realize the extent of his own actions.

Finrel looked up past the tree line up at the mountain range to the north of the city as he got a distant look in his eye before he sighed and looked back at the city that was beginning to loom closer as they walked. "We were attacked." And with those three words came a heavy weight in his voice, one born of sadness and grim acceptance.

Locke's eyes grew wide in amazement as the thought sunk in. _So soon? How could we have not known about this?_ "I thought that they would have taken longer to get here, or at the very least that they would have been spotted before they reached the town." His comments drew a suspicious look from Finrel as Locke quickly realized that as a simple traveler he shouldn't have known about the recent incident or even less about the expected attack. The look gave way to a tired sigh as they both looked up at the ever closer city as weariness overcome worry.

"You'll get to see for yourself how bad it was. We were only attacked a few nights ago and we still haven't found all the bodies yet."

************************************************************

He had been expecting the Empire to send a contingent of soldiers to Narsche, especially considering both the recent discovery in the mines and how wealthy the city had become in the last few decades. He had been expecting a minor skirmish or even a small battle over the discovery. He had been expecting a few casualties over the incident. What he had not been expecting was how devastated and destroyed the city was.

As they walked through the business district of the second largest city on the northern continent, Locke couldn't help but stare in awe and increasing worry at the many dozens of buildings that had been ravaged. The fires had long since withered, the dead removed, the furniture salvaged, and the buildings ransacked, yet here and there he would occasionally see a person black with soot and ash clearing through the remains of a once proud building searching for something of import.

There weren't just a few buildings destroyed, there were dozens. For every four or five he saw standing one was burnt to the ground and another was barely standing. Even with that, not a single shop or place of merchandise in the entire industrial district survived unscathed. If he didn't know any better (and had he thought he would win) he would have wagered that whoever the attackers were had personally attacked every single business building. _So they aren't just content with killing the men and trying to steal what isn't theirs, they're also trying to keep Narsche from sustaining itself by killing the industry here too. How much more selfish can they get? _

Having seen his own share of bloodshed and battle in his lifetime, he had grown accustomed to seeing the destruction war could cause. He thought that he had become immune to the images of destruction that were ever-present after a battle, yet still he began to hurt inside when he saw a small boy of not older than five or six standing with what looked like his mother digging through the destroyed remains of a building. The way that the boy never left his mother's side and constantly kept glancing over at her – as if to assure himself that she was still there – was all the proof Locke needed to know that the boy must have lost his father during the attack.

It was so cruel in a way. He had heard the propaganda that was being circulated by those loyal to the Empire on the Southern Continent, how they thought that Emperor Gestahl was bringing a "better and brighter future" to all of the children and how they were fighting to make the world a safer place for the next generation. But seeing the actuality of those efforts in the haunted looks and downcast eyes of the children personally affected by it was heart-breaking. No child of that age should lose a family member, let alone their own father.

Sad as it was, if this was what it took to force Narsche to leave their neutral ground then maybe it was a good thing that it had been attacked. He hated thinking that way, but he had little choice. He was fighting – in his own little way – to rid the world of those trying to force others into servitude, but he couldn't possibly do it alone. Even the entire Returner force combined wouldn't be able to take on even a portion of the Empire's armies and that's if they were all combined into one place, which they weren't.

He knew, with grim acceptance, that there was little that could honestly stop the advance of the Empire at the moment. That was why he was always traveling here and there across the entire northern continent in an attempt to convince more people to the cause of right and peace. He had been doing it for years and had coincidentally become one of the most well-known members of the Returners. Outside of the resistance group he was very keen on hiding his character, but inside many held a decent respect for the person who had personally recruited over half of the Returners still living himself.

He shook himself from his reverie as he and his walking companion began nearing the house that belonged to Professor Trinbel. With his sharp eyes, he could see in the distance through the softly falling snow that the door was not only open, but it was off its hinges as well. _Something's happened. Something's gone wrong. The old man's cover might be blown. _Looking over at Finrel who was so exhausted he tripped yet again while walking, Locke quickly thought what to do. _I can't let him find out yet, if he knows that Arvis is a Returner then he'll know that I am. Well he'll know before the night is over but it's better than him finding out while he's next to me within sword-reach. _

Pretending to act nonchalant Locke said, "Finrel, I'm really worried about you. That's the third time you tripped on nothing but air since we entered the city." He hadn't really been counting, but saying just once or twice could be thrown off as coincidence. Finrel nodded his head and said, "I haven't got more than two hours of sleep each night since the attack. It's really wearing hard on me."

Knowing that if he pressed it, his friend would turn back, Locke told him, "Look, I can see the old Professor's house from here; you don't have to walk with me the whole way. If you do, I don't think you'll be able to walk the entire way back. I want you to head back now and try, _try_ to get some semblance of rest. An exhausted guard is not an effective one." Finrel didn't even look up as he just asked simply, "Are you sure?" When he heard Locke's head nodding in the affirmative, he turned slowly and just walked on back the way he came. He didn't even stop, because he knew that if he did, he probably wouldn't start walking again anytime soon. "I'll see you tomorrow then. Maybe when I'm coherent enough to actually think anything beyond 'I'm tired', I'll challenge you to another drinking contest."

Locke nodded with a small smile on his face as he said, "Sure thing Finrel. And thanks again for helping me back there. I hate to think what might've happened." "Yeah, me too," came the reply as Finrel slipped out of sight in the snowfall.

Locke turned with worry on his face as he quickly yet silently paced his way towards the house that was his destination. _If I have been found out, then all hope is lost for coming back to Narsche anytime soon to help out the Returners,_ he thought while making his way there.

************************************************************

Upon approaching the house Locke kept silence in his footsteps as his eyes swept about for any signs of trouble from around the building. It was dark inside and the dimming afternoon sky lent little light to the interior. _I don't think they're in there waiting for me. For all I know, they attacked the place long earlier in the day. _Not taking any chances nonetheless, Locke crept slowly closer whilst hiding amongst what little shadows could be found on the sides of the buildings nearby.

Arvis Trinbel's house was actually up on the side of the mountain range behind it. It had been an ideal spot for a good view of the city as well as offered some protection from the snow that constantly assaulted the house. It made it susceptible to landslides which fortunately it had not yet been a victim of.

Peering inside, Locke quickly stepped into the darkened house and hid behind the battered door to provide cover and to quickly adjust to the lack of light inside the building. Keeping his breathing silent was a trick he had come to appreciate in the many years of work with the Returners and kept him safe from some few unhealthy encounters. After patiently waiting a few minutes to allow his eyes to fully adjust to the almost non-existent light and to outwait whoever might be in hiding, he looked out from behind the unhinged door to survey the front room.

The grandfather clock in the northeast corner of the entry room was quietly ticking away amidst the ransacked room. The rug that was normally at the front door for the snow and mud covered boots of visitors was instead kicked aside uncaringly. The table in the western half of the room had been knocked over while the wooden chairs surrounding it were also overturned save one which was upright and facing the entryway to the eastern half of the house. The drapes that covered the western wall windows had seemingly been covering up the inside from outside prying eyes until they had been ripped off the ringlets that kept them aloft.

Locke's sharp eyes saw the tracks of numerous muddy bootprints that had entered the house and quickly counted out five men had entered the building. What was strange was that he only saw two sets had left out the front door. _I can't trust that the other three left out the back door. I just have to assume they're still there waiting for me. And I got to find Arvis. He's no fighter, he had to have either been captured or killed. _A pang of sadness rose up in him as he thought of the old man's death. _First my own safety, then others if I can. _It was not a selfish thought, but a calculating one. If he couldn't keep himself safe, he had no hope to keep others the same way. _To help someone to safety, you must first be there yourself. _That was a phrase that Arvis himself had told him and he understood the importance and meaning of it.

Walking with lightened footsteps and avoiding the floorboards that creaked – he knew them by heart having visited here enough in the past three years to know them all without looking at them – Locke slowly crept to the eastern side of the house where more muddy bootprints had left than returned. Going quickly yet silently past the two doors in the hallway leading to the kitchen while swiftly checking to ensure that they were indeed closed and no one lurked awaiting a passing victim, he moved into the kitchen. The table had a few plates on it with one of them empty and another partially covered with uneaten food. _He had guests over. Not like him to feed them though. This is really strange. _What else he saw in the kitchen both brought him both worry and relief. He spotted the old man on the ground unconscious yet breathing evenly so he wasn't seriously injured.

Not stopping to inspect and care for him quite yet, he first checked the rest of that side of the house with haste to see where the men had gone. He couldn't very well be assisting the Professor while he got a sword in the back unawares. The boots led to one of the guest rooms that Locked had slept in before on some visits and he followed them to the old wardrobe that housed his personal safety exit to the mines. He had used that way before and it had kept his comings and goings quiet and unnoticed in the past, not so now. The wardrobe was open and women's clothing was littering the ground and trampled underfoot, the back wall of the furniture had been bashed in by something and the muddy tracks disappeared into the depths of the passage beyond.

_Why in the name of Minerva herself would they attack the old man, ransack his house, then destroy and go through his hidden entrance to the mines? And why bother him in the first place? The city was attacked by the Empire not by us. Why attack someone that had nothing to do with the assault? _The questions mounting and no answers forthcoming, Locke knew one person that could answer them. Knowing that the house was empty and safe for the moment, he went to the door of that room and closed it while going to the kitchen and grabbing a glass from a cupboard. He went back to the guest room door and carefully balanced the glass upside down on the doorknob, knowing that if anyone came back through the mine entrance it would fall and allow them a small warning. And any warning however small would be useful.

Going back to the kitchen, he opened up another cupboard and pulled out some matches lighting them as he bent over and lit the candle in the center of the round kitchen table. He turned back to Arvis on the ground, kneeled and checked him for any lasting wounds. _A nasty bump on the head, other than that he seems alright. No blood seeping out from under him. They must have knocked him out to keep him from interfering in their search, for whatever it was they were looking for. _Which just brought more questions and Locked determined to find the answers to them.

Shaking the unconscious man carefully avoiding moving his head too much, he woke him up from his forced slumber. The first thing he was greeted with was a groan and a shout when Arvis moved quicker than he meant to and brought more pain to himself. "Oh…. They honestly did not have to hit me. I'm just an innocent man." This brought a chuckle from Locke as he helped him slowly to a chair around the table.

"You're a meddling old man is what you are." He told his long-time friend. After sitting him in a seat, Locke joined him around the simple candlelit table. Before he could say anything, Arvis had the first word.

"Took you long enough to get here. Busy with all that robbing and plundering, I presume?" Locke looked indignant and replied back as he always did when the accusation was sent his way but without the usual bravado in his voice, "I prefer the term 'Treasure Hunting' you know."

He was rewarded with a laugh which turned to a hiss of pain when Arvis moved his head too quickly. "Semantic nonsense is all it is and you and I both know what it is you really do." Still unwilling to accept the statement for what it was, Locke replied back without much force "There's a huge difference." Arvis remained silent at that and just rested a moment to lighten the headache that would probably be there for quite a while longer.

Unable to stand the silence for too long when the city guard might be coming back any minute, Locke asked, "How's the head? It didn't seem that bad from when I looked at it, but it must hurt like hell." His companion took a slow deep breath and opened his squinting eyes to look at Locke and replied back, "I can manage well enough. I used to be a mighty good drinker in my unmarried days so I am no stranger to a severely painful hangover headache." After a moment he added, "And yes, it does 'hurt like hell'". Locke let out a soft chuckle at the response before he began speaking again with a serious tone in his normally pleasant baritone voice.

"You sent for me for a reason Arvis. And when I arrive I find the city guard not only tripled outside the city but trying to take my head off for walking into Narsche, the industrial district burned badly with other parts also destroyed, dead bodies everywhere, your own home broken into and nothing but questions are coming to me." He let that sink in for a moment before he continued more quietly, as if to avoid prying ears that might be about. "I know what the miners found here. I know that the Empire attacked. What I don't know is why you were. I'm … worried about you old man. What's going on here?"

Arvis sighed in resignation before he replied nonchalantly, "They were not after me. That is why I got away with just a bump on the head and a drafty house from the open door. They were after my guest, a very unique guest to be precise." Locke looked at him with questions on his tongue and in his eyes, but before he could voice any of them Arvis continued. "Knowing you, you already know that one of the Empire's Magitek Knights that attacked five days ago was a young woman." That had surprised Locke when he learned it, Magitek Knights were veteran soldiers requiring years of training both before entering the Magitek Training Center and during their service before graduating. Having such a young girl as a Magitek Knight was absolutely unheard of. When Locke nodded in the affirmative, Arvis said something that completely shocked him. "She was here recovering from her injuries earlier this afternoon. The city guard discovered that I was sheltering her and decided to barge into my house and attack her before asking questions."

His shock quickly wore off to anger as he realized that his friend had not only been harboring an Imperial soldier but also helping her to recover. Notwithstanding her being a girl, it made absolutely no sense. Arvis hated the Empire; he hated fighting; he hated those who fought. So why would he help and abet a Magitek Knight when they were known for their violence and unstoppable devotion to orders of destruction? _More answers lead to more questions. Why can't life ever be easy for me? _

Standing stiffly he said, "If I hadn't known you for as many years as I have, I'd be thinking that you were trying to betray the Returners. Helping a Magitek Knight is far beyond any pacifist views, even yours Arvis. Why the hell would you be helping her?" His tone was brusque and anger evident in his voice but confusion was underlying in his tone. He didn't know what Arvis was up to, but he better damn well have a good reason for it.

Arvis looked up at his towering friend, knowing that getting angry back would only escalate the situation and they honestly didn't have any time for that. "I do not believe that she did anything of her own choice." That statement brought even more confusion to Locke who continued to stand there looking down at the Professor of Ancient Histories. Arvis face became indignant as he said briskly, "Are you going to continue to stand there and glare at me or allow me to explain? We honestly do not have much time and I need you to understand me." Locke stood for a few seconds longer then sat stiffly down in the same chair he stood from still eyeing the man in front of him while waiting for an explanation.

Arvis resisted the urge to sigh again and looked Locke straight in the eye while saying with much disdain and hatred in his voice, "They were using her Locke. She has a Slave Crown on her." Locke immediately hissed through his teeth and pulled back a little with a sneer of disgust. He knew what they were. Relics of the past, the only one he would admit that deserved to just stay a part of the past. It was exactly as its title indicated a tool of slavery. Of all the things the Empire had possession of and used to further their own selfish goals, the Slave Crowns were something that he truly hated with fear and loathing. _If she had one of those on her then she didn't have any choice, not even conscious thought during the assault. But why send an unwilling soldier to a battle? Or why does someone as young as her even have a Slave Crown on? Damn. This is really getting old. Every question I get an answer to leads to more and more and more. _Then something Arvis said piqued his attention. Even though he knew it would lead to more questions, he needed to know this answer.

"Arvis, what do you mean she **has** a Slave Crown on her? If she still has it on why didn't she attack you and why are you even helping her? You know what those things do."

Arvis looked out the southern window in the kitchen at the rapidly dwindling light before he replied, "I must make this brief. She has been gone from this house for too long and I fear that they will find her soon." Turning to face the other man at the table, he continued. "Therefore you must keep silence and listen. Though you may have questions, now is not the time for them." Locke thought on that for but a moment before he nodded in affirmation to his friend.

"When I found her unconscious in the mines she was alone and physically unharmed except for her head. She had a deadly fever and the Slave Crown was still on her head. I could not leave an injured young woman like that. After taking her back here, I attempted to remove the infernal thing from her. For some strange reason it would not move. Not wanting to injure the poor girl any worse than she already was, I took a closer look at her head. Something must have happened to her because the Slave Crown will not be removed. It looked like it had somehow melted partially and her skin was stuck strongly to it. It did not look burned though, and that is one odd thing of note among many. When she woke up she was physically weak yet I feared the moment she regained strength she would continue whatever her misguided mission was. Then she asked me where she was."

Throughout the explanation, Arvis had slowly been becoming more and more animated – as animated as he could be with a head injury – and Locke could see that he was truly excited in what had happened. "It astounded me when she said that. She was thinking and questioning. The Slave Crown must have been damaged severely and is not working anymore but I could not remove it whatsoever. The best I could do was cover her forehead with bandages and hide the filthy thing. Harbor no fear of it working; it is just a glorified hair accessory now."

"She was capable of standing and dressing herself, and then I was able to put a good hearty meal in her before the city guard arrived." His face became downcast as he continued.

"I had been treating her and watching her slow recovery over her dreadful fever for going on five days and nights. They must have finally discovered that I was housing her and decided to pay me a non-social visit. I sent her away through the passage behind the wardrobe in the guest room moments before they broke down the front door. I made it here to the kitchen before they reached me. I tried to explain to them that the Empire was using the girl, but they refused to listen. They were too driven by anger and hatred to listen to any logic or understanding. They knocked me out to keep me from delaying them in their search."

"The girl was not responsible for any of her actions previous. She should not be held accountable for them. Not only that, I believe that she is a truly unique individual that will undoubtedly help us in our fight against the Empire. We need to get her out of Narsche and away from those who seek her life. Make your way to Figaro. Beyond that you know your way better than I ever could."

Locke had listened attentively throughout and believing that the important information had been given, said "Then if I'm going to get her out of here, I need to leave now. The miners know these mines better than their own houses it seems and they have a head-start on me."

He stood and turned towards the hallway leading to the guest room but was stopped when Arvis called his name. Locke turned his head partway to listen to him and noticed that Arvis was very serious. His demeanor had turned dark and melancholy to which Locke grew worried that something else had gone wrong and there was more bad news.

"There is something else you need to know. Even though that devilish relic does not work anymore as it was intended to, it is causing something else." Arvis looked Locke straight in the eyes and stated "She lost her memory Locke."

Locke didn't make any reply verbally or physically but his eyes told a different story. His eyes shone with a bitter pain and remorse before he steeled himself and turned away quickly. "Then I better hope that she remembers you telling her that I'm coming to get her." He spoke with too much rigidity in his voice to be normal, but his demeanor stated that he didn't want to confront the statement. He began walking again and only stopped long enough to grab the glass on the doorknob of the door and to open it before he stepped quickly past and entered the broken passageway into the mines, leaving behind only an upright glass on a table in the room.

************************************************************

He had used the passage he was in many times before. He had walked its reaches and traversed its veins in years and trips previous. It had been a safe haven to him, knowing that only Arvis and he knew of its existence. But this time it was different. He couldn't tell if there was a different smell than before, or if the air was colder and less inviting. What he did know was that the feelings of refuge and safety were gone now with the knowledge that there were at least three men in here that sought the life of someone he was trying to find.

Locke walked through the cave with no light showing him the way, he didn't need any though. He knew this passage without any help so his lack of sight was hardly a hindrance to him. His sharp ears were at full attention to whatever might be hidden by the light but harboring some comfort that the guards did not know their way as he did – at least in this part of the mines. The intruders of this secret place would be using lanterns to light their way and he would be warned early of any other inhabitants. Still he listened intently as he kept a brisk yet quiet pace on the off chance that the guards had decided to leave someone behind as a rear guard for surprise attacks. From the way that Arvis has spoken to him back in the house he doubted that they were capable of rational thought what with their anger and hatred blinding their common sense.

When he neared the first intersection, he knelt down to the ground and pushed slowly into the hard cold dirt with his gloved hands feeling for something. After a moment of quiet search, he found what he was looking for. Footprints made from heavy boots were going in both directions. From the heel impressions he was able to tell that the three he was following went to the right and were joined by two more coming from the other direction. _Great, more guards means more trouble for me and a greater chance I won't be able to sneak out of here with the girl unnoticed. _He sighed quietly before continuing his current search of the ground.

After a short search he found his target. A much smaller imprint made by someone far lighter and smaller than the guards. He could tell that she must be wearing heeled boots of some sort judging from the lack of indentions between the heel and the rest of the foot. _She's light. Either she's a lot younger than Finrel thought or she's just very slender. _The prints went left and so did he.

Her boots made such a small impression on the ground that Locke almost missed them at the next junction ahead with his hands in his gloves. _I can't waste any more time than I have to finding her. _He quickly reached behind him and pulled out a thinner pair of gloves from within the confines of his pack and switched them with his current pair. The thinner material would not keep out the cold nearly as well as the other pair but the fingerless gloves would allow him to recognize the prints of the girl's heels better and quicker. Speed was of the essence when every second not reaching her was another that the guards could.

The second junction led to a third and then a fourth beyond that. At each one Locke quietly and swiftly bent down and felt along the ground for the prints that he was swiftly becoming familiar with. And with each succeeding intersection of cave more guards had seemed to join the hunt judging by the sheer number of prints that he was finding. _She better not be much farther. I don't know this path very well compared to the others. But if as much time as Arvis claimed has passed then she has gone much farther on than this or she would be caught already. _

Going further on and holding his hands out in from of him to catch anything before he physically reached it in the pitch black darkness, he was somewhat unprepared for the obstruction that was on the ground. His outstretched hands saved him from an unpleasant fall, he turned and felt for what had tripped him. His hand reached a long slim object that seemed to be made of wood with one end covered by cloth and slightly moist. _A torch. One of the guards must have left it behind in their rush to find her. _

Not wasting the luck that had been so generous at the moment, Locke went behind him in the darkness to his pack and went inside one of the many pockets there. He pulled out a small box of matches and struck one lighting the torch with it. When the flames on the torch slowly reached their apex he turned and looked down at the ground. The floor of the passage was hard but he still saw the prints of many men and judging the distance of their paces, they must have been moving quite fast. There was a place on the ground that has been scuffed badly and from the way that the girl's prints had doubled on themselves for a moment meant that she must have either moved backwards for a second or paced in place.

Locke followed the prints of the girl to another junction and turned right with them. The path was straight for about a hundred feet before it turned to the right and then the prints abruptly stopped. He looked down and inspected the ground seeing that they went to the wall near the corner and then seemed to back up towards it even closer. Bringing the torch closer to the location, Locke's eyes widened slightly as he took in a small hole at the very corner. The prints ended there and shining the light he had over the hole, he could tell that it was deeper than he could see down to.

Jamming the torch into the ground so as to free up his hands, Locke pulled his pack off and reached into the bottom of it bringing out a thin but strong rope. _I hope that it's long enough. I'd hate to have to jump down from the end and injure myself trying to find her. _He looped one end around a rock outcropping that jutted out near the hole and then tossed the rest of it down inside. Listening intently as it fell, he heard it hit the ground beneath softly so he knew that it reached. _Thank the Gods for small blessings. _

He reached for the torch and held it using one hand while using the other to grasp the rope. Swiftly sliding down but not too quick as to burn his unclad fingers on the rope Locke reached the bottom sooner than he expected. _It must not have been that deep. She either fell through the hole above or jumped down in an attempt to escape them. _He noticed that it was in actual cavern he found himself, not a simple hole or other cave passageway. Lifting the torch higher he looked around and found a body on the ground not more than fifteen feet from him.

Moving to the person's side the first thing he noticed was the strange color of their hair. Before he allowed himself to wonder about it he turned her slowly over to inspect her for injuries. Her forehead and the sides of her head were covered in bandages as Arvis had told him and she was dressed in far too little for the cold weather in Narsche. Her left foot was twisted at an awkward angle that was too sharp to be normal. The bright red of her clothing made it difficult to tell if she were bleeding underneath but after a close careful and modest inspection of her body he discovered that she wasn't apparently injured in any other obvious ways.

_So not only do I have an unconscious girl on my hands who looks injured not to mention not a day over eighteen, I don't know my way out of this section of the mines and there's no way I can carry her not only back up the rope but one-handed while holding the torch. On top of that with how long a head start on me the city guards had I'm sure they're going to be here pretty soon. I'm surprised they didn't climb down the way I did, maybe they didn't have the rope or were too angry to reason out the thought. Either way they're going to be out for blood when they get here for the lives she took. _

With her unconscious and incapable of movement Locke thought of how to get her out of Narsche and the caves as soon as possible when sounds began to come down the cavern. Echoes of footsteps traveled to him from the far end of the spacious and labyrinthine room he was in. _Great. Just great. I find you and trouble finds you right after. This isn't good, not at all. _His eyes traveled up to the whole in the ceiling above him. _Can't climb up, can't go the way they're coming in and behind me there's no way out. We're trapped._

From the sounds of the footsteps and shouts coming his way, there was precious little time left to come up with any plan to get out of his current predicament. _Up's no good, back's a wall, so the only way out is forward._ Having decided on a course of action and pulling out one of his small daggers on his belt with his left hand, Locke prepared to face too many men with far too little weaponry. To free his hands for the fight ahead, he pushed the torch he held in his right hand into a craggy hole in the wall to his side. Hearing a sound behind him, he swiftly turned with dagger at the ready to face off against his unplanned for opponent. But there was nothing there. Bare rock from the wall gave off a dull reflection from the torch-light giving it a metallic sheen but nothing else was there.

_I know I heard something. I'm stressed but not imagining things. _Locke kept staring at the wall from whence the sound came and his eyes slowly widened as he saw the impossible. The sounds of rock scraping on rock slowly grew until it sounded as if it was not more than a few feet from him. The metallic luster of the wall shined brighter than normal before the entire wall seemed to shiver.

A crack appeared in the wall and before he could understand what was occurring, the crack became a fissure and opened up to reveal darkness beyond. Wondering what new devilry was this, Locke tightened his grip on the dagger in his left hand while pulling out another with his right. He didn't know what to think would come from the dark, but to his utter amazement the least expected occurred.

A small bipedal creature not more than three and a half feet tall with white short fur and stubby limbs walked out from the unknown crevice as if the caves were its property. A thin strand of what looked to be fur sprang from the back of the head and curved forward with a patch of reddish fur clumped at the end overcasting the face area. A small necklace of white small bead-like rocks hung around the neck. But its eyes drew his attention the most, they were clear and shone with an intelligence above that of the creature realm that seemed to bore into him as it walked out.

Without a word it walked quickly towards the immobile girl on the ground but Locke moved to a place of interception that caused the being to stop. It looked up at the person almost twice its height and spoke with a voice calm and quiet but that echoed in the caves with an unknown strength.

"I will not hurt her. Kupo. Fear not for her protection from me." Locke visibly widened his eyes in shock at the fact that this creature that opened up the wall spoke to him. Knowing that he could do nothing on his own and trusting in the Gods' design and the fate he was given, he stepped aside with both daggers held tight in his hands but allowing the diminutive being to inspect his charge.

After kneeling down by the young woman – which served to make Locke think of how truly short the thing was – it looked at the injured leg and at the strange-colored hair then stared straight at her neck. After a few moments he realized that it was looking deeply at the interesting ruby pendant that hung from her neck. It spoke without turning and facing him, but he could hear its voice clearly even with the sounds of the continuously approaching shouts of anger across the cavern.

"Kupo. Protection given and lives spent. A debt must be paid." The creature stood and turned to look at him while Locke spoke his mind. "What are you?" A smile appeared on the being's face as it answered saying, "We are Guardians by choice and friends of nature. Kupo. We're moogles." The voice spoke with such happiness in its voice as it spoke that Locke was visibly taken back.

"Guardians?" Locke asked curiously. "Does that mean you're going to help us?" His voice had hope in it at the strange events that were happening, but he wasn't about to turn down any offer of help at the moment.

"I am Mog. We moogles will help you help her. We will assist you to leave the mines." It then knelt down and touched its hand to the ground while smiling all the while. The floor beneath it shimmered and then a pole of metal seemed to lift from solid rock and became a spear of deadly nature. The creature grasped the violent weapon before him and it was then that Locke made a few realizations.

He first realized that the small being possessed only four fingers to its hand, yet it held the spear with a strength that belied its size. What surprised him even more was that the weapon that had been taken from the ground was made of solid Mythril and seemed to glow with an internal light. Hearing a sound, Locke turned and saw from the wall that Mog had come from entered almost a dozen more creatures like it in size and stature each carrying their own weapons made from the same glowing Mythril.

Locke was shaken from his observations as the angry shouts grew ever closer and he turned to see at the other end of the cavern men from the city had arrived and were carrying torches that lit the way. There were almost twenty of them and what frightened him more was that some were holding leashes on Lobos that were looking around and sniffing in the air leading them.

One man stood at the front with his left arm dangling uselessly to his side with black char marks on the sleeves of that arm. The smell of burned flesh wafted through the cavern swiftly to Locke's nose as he watched the man that was clearly standing through the pain by anger and hatred alone. One of the men pointed to Locke's side of the spacious cavern and yelled out to grab the others' attention.

"The Lobos led us right to them. There they are. Cleitos, she's over there." At that, the man with a charred arm spotted Locke standing near the green-haired girl on the ground. He began yelling out commands to the men with him.

"She's there men. From the looks of it she didn't handle the fall from above very well. She seems to have found some more traitors to the city with her. Don't let any of them escape. They don't deserve to live after they attacked the city like they did."

_How did I all the sudden become a member of the Empire that attacked the town I'm trying to help?_ Locke barely had time to think that before the Lobos were unleashed and they darted across the cavern to the diminutive defenders. Lobos were naturally fast, even more so in the cold region they were fond of. They seemed to speed across the quickly narrowing distance faster than Locke thought natural but to his amazement, the Moogles moved to intercept them before they reached what they were hunting.

Fangs bit on metal while white fur met grey. The Moogles , though smaller, fought with their weaponry well and were quite nimble because of their smaller size. While the Lobos took on the other defenders, some of Narsche's soldiers had ran forward with swords and pickaxes drawn to kill those who dared attack their homes. Other Moogles joined Locke in stopping them from reaching the girl.

The man in charge of the attack stalked forward slowly, his eyes full of anger and pain as he drew his sword from his right hip awkwardly with his right arm. Locke could tell that he must have been a left-handed swordsman but with that arm recently burned and incapacitated, he was making do with what he could. The man called Cleitos made a direct line towards the injured girl on the ground whilst ignoring the sounds of battle and of the dying as his sole focus was on killing the one who caused him pain. Locke himself moved to intercept him and gripped his two daggers tighter in his hands preparing for the fight.

"She killed them. She killed them all. She deserves to die for what she has done." Cleitos began rambling and Locke ignored him as he neared them. "She did this. She burned my arm, destroyed my home, and killed my brother. Death will be sweet justice for her." Locke could tell that this man was beyond reasoning and would stop at nothing to kill her. So he did what he had to do and waited for Cleitos to make the first move. He didn't have to wait long.

The attack was blunt but clumsy and it seemed to suit the man who thrust forward with his sword held awkwardly in his right hand. Locke had little trouble moving out of range of the deadly weapon. Cleitos swung horizontally this time to minimize the chance of Locke avoiding the blow. But again, his opponent just ducked swiftly under the swing and moved slightly to the side. Anger clouded the man's judgement as he began to swing wildly with his blade, even more so as he was unused to wielding it with his right hand.

Locke was quick and agile and after a few more dodges without letting the sword connect, he used both his daggers to block a downward thrust to his face. Acting quickly, Locke stepped forward under the blade while his left dagger held it up and moved his right arm forward while switching the dagger to a reverse hold, brought his weapon to bear against Cleitos' left shoulder. A cry of severe pain came from him as he stepped back to nurse his already injured and burned arm.

Before he could have a moment to recover, Locke had dashed forward quicker than before and brought his right dagger down across his opponent's right wrist causing his to drop his sword while bringing his left hand as a fist holding the hilt of the dagger against Cleitos' right temple. The blow was strong and he was unprepared for it. He fell on his left side unconscious from the hit while Locke held his now bleeding knuckles.

Locke looked around and noticed that the Moogles had taken care of the rest of the guards with most unconscious and some killed. They had been gracious enough to incapacitate and to render unconscious as many as they could rather than kill them. The guards had not been so inclined in their battle. Mog knelt down to a dead Moogle and with tears falling lifted the Mythril dagger from the hands of his fallen friend. Even thought it was a dagger, to Mog and the other Moogles it was the size of a decent sword and Locke once again thought on how small in comparison they were.

Sounds echoed in the caves and Locke heard the bellows of creatures far more fierce than the Lobos they had faced. He knew a Vommamoth's cry when he heard it. Mog turned to Locke and quickly reached behind his neck to take off the small necklace he had on. "You cannot stay here anymore. She needs to leave for she holds the key." After removing the necklace, he took the small dagger made of Mythril and handing them both to Locke said, "Take these. They will help you. The weapon is for her to remember us Guardians of the past. The charm will help you leave this cave."

Locke took both items and pocketed them with his own daggers in his pack which he adjusted to his front as he knelt to pick up the green-haired maiden at his side and placed her on his back. After standing, Locke looked straight at Mog and said, "Thank you. For everything. We wouldn't have made it out of this without you. I'll never forget this." Mog just smiled that impossibly innocent smile and nodded his head while pointing to the opened wall that he had come through before the battle. "That way will lead you out to the farthest mountain wall. When you reach it, press the charm to the rock and your way will open." Locke pulled out a small piece of rope and tied the girl's hands together so he could grab them with one hand. He then pulled the torch from the craggy wall that held it with the other hand and turned to run in the opening.

If Locke had been looking back as he left and ran with the green-haired girl on his back, he would have seen the Vommamoths enter the other side of the cavern and Mog jump high in the air and impale one of the two in the entryway with his Mythril Spear that not only mortally wounded it but immobilized it as well. The only thing Locke heard as he left was a large bellow of pain and anguish as the creature gave it's death cry. As Locke left the way Mog told him to go, he heard sounds of cave-ins behind him but he ignored those as he ran, his first priority saving the girl under his charge and care.

After running through the passage for a good ten minutes with the sounds of collapsing rock and pain fading behind him he eventually reached a solid wall and put the torch on a small ledge of rock. He untied the rope around the girl's hands and set her carefully on the ground to avoid further injury to her leg. Unfortunately, the jolt of her landing seemed to have woken her as she stirred and opened her eyes with great confusion and fright. She screamed for a short moment until she realized that she wasn't falling through the floor anymore.

Locke pulled his hands from his ears as he said to her, "Wow. That is one mighty pair of lungs you have young lady." She looked up at the unfamiliar man and tried to stand and run from someone she must have thought was trying to attack her like everyone else but Arvis had done. She had barely put some weight on her right foot before she collapsed again on the ground in pain. She looked straight up at Locke and said, "Please. I don't want to die. Please don't kill me."

Locke looked down at her sadly for a moment then he smiled widely as he knelt down near the frightened girl and said, "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not like the others that chased you. I'm a friend of Arvis' and he sent me to find you and get you out of Narsche before anyone else tries to hurt you." The look of surprise turned to worry as she blurted out a question. "Is he alright?"

Locke looked at the girl in front of him with slight confusion. _Here she is with an injured ankle, bandages covering her forehead and temples to her ears, frightened for her own life and the first thing she asks about is someone else's safety. She is a truly caring person._ His voice came out without him noticing it. "He's fine. He suffered a small bump to the head but other than that he's uninjured. It seems that you got the worst of it between you two."

Locke then knelt down while pulling out a heavy cloth from a pocket and proceeded to bind the girl's leg to help her to walk. He took one of his daggers and cut the torch into a long wooden stick that he tied to her leg to help her stand. The girl stayed on the ground watching him bind her injury with a look of confusion on her face. After he was done, he stood and walked over to the solid wall. He pulled out the necklace that Mog had given him and pressed it to the wall with confidence.

It only took a moment before the rock began to shift and open up to let soft light in from outside. It wasn't much light as night had fully fallen while they were in the caves, but it was enough that it allowed Locke to see with his sharp eyes. He turned to the girl as she asked him, "You… saved me?" She seemed unsure of the answer that he would give.

Locke let out a small laugh as he said, "Not quite. I wouldn't have been able to get you out of that situation without the help of the Moogles. Crafty little things." She looked up at his face with even more confusion then before so he tried to appease her and make her less uncomfortable. "No sense dwelling on the past too much either way though. We need to get out of here and the quicker we leave the better."

She looked down and spoke quietly. "Why are you helping me? After everything I've done, you still are willing to help me?"

With resolution and confidence in his voice Locke said, "I promised Arvis I would keep you safe. And I never break a promise." His voice had strength but bore a tinge of regret that he didn't even hear himself.

Locke looked back the way they had come while straining his ears to hear for anything that might be following them, then walked over to her and held out his hand for her to grasp. "With your leg injured as it is, it'll be better if you lean on me so we can move faster and get farther from here."

She looked at his outstretched hand and after thinking for a moment, grabbed it and let him lift her up. He positioned them so she had her left arm over his shoulders as he held most of her weight. As he helped her walk to the exit, he noticed that she was slightly shorter than him. _And she's far lighter than I thought. She must be just over 100 pounds. This means that we'll make decent time even with her injury._

As Locke helped her walk, they moved towards the exit of the caves and left the caves and memories of Narsche behind.

**Writers Notes**

Another of the intriguing aspects of Final Fantasy VI is the focus on perspectives. How different the world seems to the Returners versus Emperor Gestahl and even those are different from the innocent townspeople in different villages and cities across the world. I wanted to portray that aspect somewhat in this chapter. We know Wedge's opinions on the assaulting and destroying of places of business, and now we have Locke's opinion on the same matter.

On the matter of the Slave Crown, I always imagined it to be an actual crown-like device that rested comfortably on the head of an individual. I decided to keep it on Terra because I believe that it serves a better purpose for the story there than broken and/or unusable in Arvis' house collecting dust throughout the course of the story. It is also an understandable reason as to why Terra's memory was lost and is slow to be regained.

On grammar, "Therefore you must keep silence and listen." Under normal circumstances the phrase would be "keep silent and listen" but _to keep silence_ is also a verb, a less common phrasing of verb but an actual one nonetheless.

I have created an actual time length for the entirety of the World of Balance from start to finish and the specifics of the first third being almost exact and done. One thing that always bothers me when reading is either the skipping around in timeline or the ignoring of the natural flow of it completely. I will try to create accurate representations of travel times as well as understandable weather situations.

I have created a Table of Contents for the story. Due to the fact that fanfiction_dot_net tends to number their chapters (entries) differently than I do and will, I felt that it was a welcome addition. I also included a few other things besides the numbering as a way of explaining more. The timeline and dates will be stated there with the format of YEAR/MONTH/DAY because I choose to do so.

Once again I humbly request for reviews and/or comments on my writing style. I wish greatly to improve myself as a writer as well as make this story an excellent example of what Final Fantasy VI can be. Please inform me of your thoughts and opinions of the story so far as well as on the portrayal of characters, places and perspectives. I understand that Locke and Terra have actually just left Narsche so this is still quite early in the story, but I do appreciate a kind word or even a criticizing one as any thoughts do help the story both progress and improve. They also encourage me to continue as my brother and myself are my only supporters of me continuing the story.

On a pleasant note, the story has now reached 30,000 words and they just left Narsche. That makes me happy and also look forward to the length of the story as a whole. I look forward to breaking the 100,000 word barrier. I believe that will happen around the end of the Returner headquarters part of the story. I have the very hefty goal of creating one of the longest FF VI stories on FanFiction with a length I deign to mention, but we shall see how that turns out.

Word Count: 12,170

Uploaded: 2009/07/18


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